Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure
by Souldin
Summary: Kirby and friends set off onto an adventure to explore the unexplored regions of Whispy Wood's forest where a great treasure is said to lay, but with King Dedede and Metaknight also after the treasure who will get to it first.
1. Mysterious Shadow!

**_Yay, my first fanfiction. I'm not like most people who will say be kind or beg you to review my story, review my story if you want too, criticize if you want too, so long as you enjoy reading it I don't mind._**

**_I can't be sure when I'll next update but I promise to try and update every week or fortnight unless something serious gets in my way. Well let's just see how long I can stick to that statement._**

**_Anyway hope you enjoy!_**

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_**Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure!**_

_**Prologue: Mysterious Shadow! The Adventure Begins.**_

A pure black veil of darkness swept Dreamland on this rarely seen starless night. None of the residents witnessed this as all had adjourned for the night and were now in their blissful slumbers occupied with cheery dreams generated by the fountain of dreams. None at all were able to witness the looming shadow approaching the village.

The shadow stepped out from among the protective trees of Whispy Wood's forest and silently made its way with its hook like feet wading through the grass. Its drooping tongue swung left and right as it walked swaying with each step. It kept on walking towards the village, closer and closer with each drunken step. The figure passed by the sign welcoming people to the peaceful Popopo village and in doing so entered the domain of the quiet settlement. The shadow continued with its swaying steps, into the village but stopped when it got to a small fountain in the centre of the village, water spewing from the top.

The creature's head vibrated in all directions slightly before swiftly twisting its head left and right. It repeated this in succession for a while until it spotted a large, red building with wide bright green doors. The shadow became a blur as it made a sudden and swift leap but landed softly and silently before the building. Using its thin tongue to slip underneath the door the creature manoeuvred its body part to grab the door handle from inside and turn it, unlocking and opening the moveable barrier. The creature re-coiled its tongue and pushed the green doors inwards, entering into the large dim room with shelves upon shelves brimmed with books. Large, wooden bookcases with reading materials placed and organised with great care filled the vast amount of space in the room however the large eyed creature paid no attention to such things as its sparkling blue eyes spotted a reception desk nearby. No one was attending to it at this late hour but the looming figure headed towards it anyway. Its coiled tail began to rise up, a rectangular object in its grasp. The creature dropped the brown and battered book onto the desk and let out a minute chuckle in doing so. Its head shook violently up and down as it let out a stifled laugh of glee before turning back to the now open doorway.

The creature went out of the building and back into the currently spacious village, closing the doors with its slender tail. No longer caring what noise it made the creature laughed with a high pitch voice. It leapt high into the sky, over the houses and the greeting sign till it landed far away from the village and just before the forest. This time the landing cracked the ground as the monstrosity's heavy weight fell onto the ground from great heights. The creature tilted its head back to the village, its eyes gleaming even brighter. It let out another high pitch chuckle before bursting off into a sprint, its head swaying at fast speeds as it dashed through the trees of the forest. The further it went the quieter its ominous chuckle became.

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In this very village, in a small house on the edge of this peaceful settlement, lay a great hero. This powerful warrior slept peacefully in its small but heart warming home, even through the sinister laughs that chimed through the village at the time. The innocent child slept though it as it dreamed of skipping through a flowery field as tomatoes rained down from the sky. The bundle of joy smiled as it began feasting on the nonexistent delight of a dream showered with his much loved tomatoes. This was none other than the great protector of Dreamland, Kirby.

The hero knew not what was too come and knowing this pink circular blob, with small red feet and fin like hands he probably wouldn't care at the moment. But soon the child like hero would be swept into another adventure to put an end to various monstrous, uh... monsters misdeeds. For this event is just the beginning of an adventure into a place long forgotten. An ancient building riddled with mysteries. A place that remains hidden away beneath the dark shadows of the mysterious trees. This is another chapter into one of the Pink puffballs many great quests. This is ... Kirby's Ancient Ruin Adventure!

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**_Well I hope you enjoyed the prolouge and I'll try and get the first chapter uploaded as soon as possible. Also if you see any gramatical errors, please notify me._**

**_Another thing, although this fanfic is focused on the games rather than the anime the design of Popopo village is very similair too Cappy town except for the occasional tweak to its structure so if you have seen parts of Cappy town from the Kirby anime that will give you a good idea on what Popopo village looks like in this fanfic._**


	2. Rumours Spread!

**_Yes this is the true first chapter to my fanfic and I thank all who reviewed this fic despite only having a prologue out at the time. I forgot to put a disclaimer into the last chapter so I'll do so now._**

**_I do not, nor do I claim to own any characters in these stories except for my Ocs of which at the end of the chapter I will tell you which ones are mine and which characters belong to their respective owners. The characters other than my Oc's belong to their respective series and owners._**

**_I believe that's how you do a disclaimer but if not just say and I'll change it in my next chapter. Anyway onto chapter 1 of Kirby: Ancient Ruin Adventure! Hope you enjoy._**

**_Note: I believe that in Kirby's universe (or galaxy) the characters speak Japanese hence there will be the occasional Japanese word however I am keeping character names in English in order for them to be recognised easier. I will be using Japanese horonofics such as san and tono to make a feel of Japanese dialogue and also as it becomes a humorous character developing subject in the next chapter. I hope none of you get confused as a result of this and I apologise if you do._**

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_**Kirby: Ancient Ruin Adventure!**_

_**Chapter 1: Rumours spread! The reasons for adventure.**_

A drowsy mushroom creature waddled up to the large doors of the library as the sun began to peak above the horizon. The creature of which we will refer to as a cappy brought one of her stubby hands towards her face and began to rub her heavy eyes, letting out a loud yawn whilst doing so. Grumbling she did a slight hop towards the door and moved her pale yellow hands outwards to turn the door handle opening the entrance to the building.

"Curse that darn racket, it woke me right after I had finally managed to get too sleep." The cappy mumbled as she remembered the noises from last night which woke her.

She hopped into the building, and continued to hop and grumble "Must have been a couple of hoodlum kids."

She hopped straight to her desk, checking to see if everything was normal when she saw a brown, beaten book with no title. This puzzled the middle aged cappy, librarian as she had made sure too place all the books on their shelves yesterday. She became even more puzzled as she began to examine the book as she was sure she had never seen the book. While for most this wouldn't be a surprise but this was not a very big library and the librarian had made sure to memorise each of the books in stock.

"Is this a new book?" The cappy thought as she proceeded to open the book. Her eyes lazily scanned the books contents when, all of a sudden they blurted open wide awake. The librarian's now wide awake eyes scanned the pages with great focus and speed.

"I-It can't be." the cappy stuttered aloud in shock as her hands began shaking along with the book.

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It wasn't too long into the day that the rumours began to spread like wild fire on a planet made mostly of oil. Over the years there had been many questions as to what lay deep within the darker, unexplored reaches of Whispy Wood's Forest. Many believed Whispy Woods knew but he would claim he did not know a thing however many people believed this was a lie in order to cover things up. Many people had theories on what was in the forest and many rumours spread all over the place but none could be confirmed. As no one dared enter the darker forest, no one wanted to try and enter the Hollow Woods as it came to be known as despite being a forest but I guess hollow woods sounds better than hollow forest. The reason for this was because someone did enter that very forest, but he never came back.

The rumours today were bustling as odd and bizarre looking villagers all gathered around the library gossiping insanely. Loud chattering and bickering chimed into the air without a pattern to it. A tune of eccentric madness as they all waited in anticipation. They were waiting for those large brimmed doors to open once again.

The librarian was standing near her desk as a dark red crow with a stern white beak and small glasses resting on the top of its head sat at her desk, his black bagged eyes scanning the pages of the book. Nearby, standing next to the old crow was a young female poppy bros junior wearing a yellow floppy hat with a bronze coloured bell on the end. She wore a yellow dress stopping just at her ankles (or where you could presume the ankles to be on the legless poppy bros) with a pink rim. Like all poppy's she had legless feet and armless hands which were usually hidden away in their sleeves or pockets. Her brown locks of short hair just showed, escaping slightly from the cover of the hat as she hopped on the spot from one purple shoed foot to another.

The crow cleared its throat with a slight cough and looked up towards the librarian with an intense and serious gaze.

"Ah, yes Iru-sensei, have you found something?" the cappy asked.

The professor cleared his throat and said with a tone of anger  
"Kinoko-san I'm insulted that you could think that this book was written by my dear friend." This startled and hurt the librarian and she stepped back from shock.

"But it says on the first page his name that does suggest he is involved somehow." The Librarian stuttered.

"Involvement, as if, these are a bunch of meaningless scribbles." The old crow said his voice quiet yet also filled with anger.

"Wha-what, no there was defiantly something in there, I'm sure." The Librarian stuttered once again, her voice shaking as she raised her hands up to her face in a protesting manner.

The professor continued his assault of words until the professor's assistant spoke "Sensei."

The dark red bird turned towards his assistant and replied with a curt nod "Yes, Ume-san."

"Are those you're reading glasses on your head?" Ume asked as she pointed to the said object that lay atop the birds head. The winged, bipedal, warm-blooded, oviparous, vertebrate animal stopped squawking and tilted its head towards Ume. Then the said animal's eyes peered upwards as one of its wings rose up and lifted the spectacles with a feather.

Dropping the reading instrument onto its beak near its eyes, the crow tilted its head towards the book on the desk before raising its head, looking in the direction of the cowering middle-aged cappy and saying apologetically "Oh, what do you know it appears I didn't have my glasses on, my bad."

A vein bulged on the librarians forehead and hers pupils dilapidated "What do you mean 'sorry' you were biting my head off just a second ago for a mistake that didn't happen." The enraged woman yelled.

"Now, now let's be calm about this shall we." said the crow with growing concern.

"Sure, like how you were calm with it all earlier." The cappy yelled, this time with a raised fist. Ume looked on with a nervous sweat drop as the librarian with a menacing aura around her approached the now squawking with fear professor.

"Uh, w-w-w-w-wait a minute Kinoko-san, ah!" The crow stuttered nervously when out of the corner of his eye he noticed something on the pages of the still opened book.

A look of shock came over the birds face as he yelled with surprise "This is Takahiro's book".

Ume was startled and the envelopment of anger around Miss Kinoko instantly vanished.

"Th-that true, sir?" The Popopo village librarian asked.

The old pop star citizen nodded in confirmation.

"Really Sensei?" asked Ume who had since stopped hopping.

"Yes, after all," Professor Iru began as he began to clear his throat out "It has his name right here".

The croucar received a quick blow to the head from the librarian as Ume tumbled over head first in surprise. The old crow squawked as he rubbed his feathered head with his feathered wings "What was that for?" whined the professor.

"Anyone could write his name down, find some concrete evidence already." Miss Kinoko fumed.

"Alright, alright let's see here." mumbled the bird as he began scanning the pages of the rustic book.

It was quiet for a while with the only sounds being the murmurs of anticipation coming from outside the small building and the frequent turning of pages from the book. The crows glasses gleamed as the light from a nearby window shone down onto them. The crow turned a page only to soon turn it back to the previous page. The croucar hummed a quick and simple tune to himself as he scanned the pages once more before giving a curt nod.

"Yes this is his journal alright."

"Are you sure this time Sensei?" Ume asked as she stood on tiptoes glancing over the short red birds shoulder at the book.

"Yes, there are many indications such as writing style and punctuation but the icing on the cake was these three pages." The professor announced. This piqued the two girl's interest and so they edged near to the desk, staring down at the open book.

"So what do those three pages contain sir?" The librarian asked.

"Descriptions of an object, dear." The old red bird said as he pushed his spectacles closer to his face.

"Of what sir?" The poppy bros girl asked as she got close enough to read the battered book.

"A rock". This instantly made the two girls jerk back.

"Three pages on a rock, that's ridiculous!" The Librarian yelled.

"Well Takahiro-san always did love rocks" The croucar began to explain calmly "he was the only person I've ever known who could describe them with such passion, grain by grain and comprehend all the mineral components. I doubt anyone in Popopo village aside from him could know such knowledge."

Ume with a look of excitement on her face asked "So does this mean?"

"Yes, this is my good friends' journal of his adventures through Hollow Woods!"

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Not far from Popopo village, pinpointed on the opposite side of Whispy Wood's Forest, through large bronze gates that shimmered as the sun's gentle glow touched them, was a large, towering mountain. The earthen mountain with its encumbering terrain stood over Popopo village quietly. The top of the mountain was a whole different story though. For perched on the top was a small, castle made of fine wealthy materials.

This castle was designed with an entrance like a giant gaping monster, with barred gates like sharp, pointed fangs and windows like deep, demonic eye holes. A blue dome sat on top of the castle as a crown on a king which works well with its owner. The owner of this castle was none other than the King of the peaceful Dreamland, or so he claims.

This apparent King happened to be a large, overweight blue penguin with yellow flipper like hands and feet. Often this king would strut around his castle garbed in his fine, red robe and furry, red hat carrying his huge brown hammer over his shoulder as his various servants followed tending to his every demand.

Today was like any other day however with one major difference. The king sat on his wide seated throne with a glum, tired face, clear evidence that he was bored. The King tapped the arm of his posh chair as he sighed, his eyes scanning the room.

"Darn it all, why is there nothing for me to do around here?" The penguin grumbled in a loud, Texas thick accented voice "at this rate even having to hang out with that annoying pink blob again would be better than this." The king sighed once more as he remembered his recent adventure, teaming up with his hated foe and his friends to thwart the plans of the incarnation of darkness.

Now you may be wondering who our current focused on character is referring to. You see this selfish bully is known as King Dedede and the pink blob he speaks of is none other than our hero Kirby. Now our King here has always been jealous of Kirby for his powers and popularity and as such has developed a hatred and rivalry to our innocent dreamland citizen. There are times when the king would pull nasty pranks or even attack Kirby but there are times when this blue brute would be willing to lend the puffball a hand like the recent adventure that took place not so long ago. The tyrant protests that he did not have fun but it was very evident that he did enjoy it.

Now back to our person of royalty as he sat at the end of the quiet lonely room. His head was resting on his palm, his palm was attached to his arm, his arm was attached to his elbow, and his elbow was resting on his thrones arm which was attached to the throne. As he sat in such a position his mind began to wander and unheard of sounds became apparent.

Far from the room, all the way in his grand kitchen a sound brimmed from the sink. The dripping of water from the sink became clear as water droplets fell and fell and fell some more. King Dedede could hear them falling and in his mind he pictured the image of the droplets falling and falling and fall-

"Someone had better find something for me to do or I'm gonna start clobbering this place with my hammer!" King Dedede boomed as he rose up from his throne, arms up in the air. Just then a red, round shaped creature with small eyes and no mouth came through the open hallway rushing towards the furious penguin.

"No kimi, urgent news from Popopo town sir." shouted the round creature known as a waddle dee as he bowed quickly. This perked the raging penguin's attention.

"Go on." The portly king mumbled with a slight nod.

"It was just announced that the journal of Takahiro Ayumu Gorou, the citizen who entered the Hollow Woods eight years ago has been found." the loyal servant said with haste. The King turned round his back facing the waddle dee as he remained silent.

The waddle dee became unsettled by this and asked "Heika is there something wrong"?

The king turned round smiling with amazing grace as stars twinkled round his face "So is that all you came here to mention my lovely loyal servant".

The horror that overcame the poor round creatures face was so immense and shocking that one could not begin to describe with any other words than 'the waddle dee was scared'. The waddle dee was scared as common sense blurted out to him to run but just as he turned round ready to peg it to the open hallway a yellow hand gripped round his head/body.

The creature was spun round to face his superior who had a grin on his face that not even the Cheshire cat could accomplish.

The little dee's eyes enlarged and watered as a sinister Texas accented voice whispered "Now wherever are you running off too?"

The pitiful blob was sweating profusely as he told himself that his time of fate was about to come.

At this exact moment a spiked black ball with eyes hovered into the grand chambers "Pardon me Heika, but I thought it would be best if I came here to inform you of some rumours spreading through the village."

King Dedede's head peeked out from behind the suffering waddle dee and asked with irritation "Yeah, what is it."

"Due to the discovery of Takahiro-san's journal many rumours have begun to spread on what possible things could lie in Hollow Woods." the spiked ball known as a gordo said with calm, politeness.

A vein bulged as the king's grip tightened around his servant as he grumbled "and some random peasant's journal should concern me how?"

The slightly startled gordo nodded his head, regained his composure and continued "Well there is one heavily supported rumour of a great fortune lying deep inside an old ruin that lies within the Hollow Woods."

The king was angry enough to breathe fire out of his mouth but the sudden words of fortune made his mind tingle. The penguin's demonic grin softened into a greedier grin as he chucked the waddle dee over his shoulder.

"Is that so, servant?" Dedede asked with a sly tone as the waddle dee crashed into the wall behind him and slowly slumped to the ground. The gordo winced at the sound of the crash imagining the waddle dee's pain.

"Yes Heika, they say even Takahiro-san's friend said this." The gordo replied as he peered behind the wide king out of concern for the injured waddle dee. The King soon snickered to himself but as it went on it soon burst into a laugh of loud guffaws. The waddle dee got up slowly rubbing his rather injured forehead when the king's orders shook the chamber.

"Alright you two amass a few of my soldiers for tomorrow," King Dedede declared with his heavily accented and naturally loud voice "we're going treasure hunting in Hollow Woods!"

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**_King Dedede and Kirby both belong to Nintendo (not sure which part of it exactly so I'll say Nintendo in general). The creatures Cappys, Poppy bros juniours, Croucars, Waddle Dees and Gordos also belong to Nintendo. The Waddle dee and Gordo featured are just generic characters anyone can use._**

**_Professor Iru, Miss Kinoko (librarian), Takahiro Ayumu Gorou (even though he has yet to appear) and Ume are my Ocs. MINE!_**

**_Well I hope you enjoyed. While I do believe the majority of you will be familiar with Japanese horonfics such as san, sama and tono I will explain the less commonly heard of horonofics._**

**_'Sensei' is often heard of but doesn't necessarily mean that whoever calls that person a sensei is his or her student. Sensei is used to refer to people in a high authoritive position such as teachers, politicians and professors.  
'No kimi' is an equivalent to saying 'milord'.  
'Heika' is used for royalty but translates as 'Majesty' or when used on its own rather than as a horronofic stands for 'your Majesty'._**

**_I'll try and get out chapter 2 when I can but I'm quite busy with other matters so I may just get it in by two weeks but don't be surprised if I don't. As always review if you want too although constructive criticism would be much appreciated especially concerning my to and too's as I keep getting them confused._**


	3. Our Heroes!

**_Well I first must apoligise for the long delay and though I've had a number of things happen during that time I cannot excuse myself for the late update. I thank all of you who have been patient enough to wait for this update._**

**_Instead of putting in a disclaimer every chapter I shall instead do so at the very end so I can list every character and location that belongs to their respective owners. I hope this works out well then, I will though put in a disclaimer at the end of each chapter to highlight which characters are my own when new ones appear._**

**_Yet again I apoligize for the delay and I hope you enjoy chapter 2 of Kirby: Ancient Ruin Adventure!_**

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_**Kirby: Ancient Ruin Adventure!**_

_**Chapter 2: Our Heroes! Rumours continue spreading.**_

Pale brown feet pressed on and off the gravelled road as a small round figure sped through the village, occasionally stumbling when trying to avoid crashing headlong into a fellow villager. The limbless red character continued running even when the path went from mixed stones, pebbles and gravel to soft, thin layers of grass. Dashing ahead the amber eyed Waddle Dee continued his pace despite the odd trip or log, he'd just regain his footing or leap over it and continue onward. A sweat drop ran down the dreamlander's forehead as he sped on, basked in the sun's intense heat and blinding light.

Soon the amber eyes widened as it saw a small tree, the gentle wind brushing against its leaves as its thin branches swayed, and by it a white dome house with a slight and simple chimney sticking out of it. The crashing of water against the hillside sounded through the quiet cosy outskirt area of Popopo village. The Waddle Dee came before the door, halting in order to take off his white traditional sailor hat and brush it before placing it back onto his head and adjusting its position. The limbless creature raised its hand and knocked on the small (when compared to our size) door.

"Kirby-sama, it's me Dee, may I come in?" The sailor hat wearing Waddle Dee asked in a polite toned voice.

Hearing a small, tired poyo from inside the sailor took this as a yes and proceed to use its stubby hands to push down on the door handle and pulled it outwards.

The Waddle Dee waddled his way into the warm, small room. Inside the boarded floored room was not much as it only included a large treasure chest about Waddle Dee's height to the right side of the room, positioned below a window. At the back of the room were a quaint and humble fireplace and a door by it with a sign on it saying lavatories. Also in the room were paintings attached to the walls of Kirby and his friends, while on the left side was another window with a small bed below it.

Currently the bed was occupied by a small pink blob whose eyes blinked rapidly as he brought a small fin like hand up to his face and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry for disturbing your sleep Kirby-sama." Dee said in a polite tone, his most natural and used tone.

Our Pink hero rubbed his eyes gently until he felt awake enough to stand up. Kirby hopped up onto his feet unsteadily at first but soon balanced himself.

"Hi." The drowsy puffball said, his words slightly slurred due to just waking up.

"Good morning, Kirby-sama." Waddle Dee chirped as he tilted his head slightly to look up at his higher mounted friend.

A slight frown appeared on the usually energetic and cheerful puffball as he said "No, Kirby."

Being able to tell that something had upset Dee asked right away "What's wrong Kirby-sama?"

This just seemed to make Kirby's frown deepen as he said slightly louder than before "Kirby, Kirby."

This made the poor waddling creature confused but apparently, soon figured it out as Dee said "Oh, you're mad at me for saying sama, sorry Kirby-ue." Dee was wrong however as Kirby then puffed up his cheeks.

"I meant Kirby-tono, Kirby-tono right." Dee cried out as he held up his hands and waved them in an apologetic manner. Kirby had begun to calm down but was still cross.

The pink ball just crossed his hands and said "Kirby."

Dee could see that Kirby was still cross and so after a quick second of thought tried to apologise.

"I'm sorry for waking you up so early and suddenly Kirby, I just came for a visit." said Dee in a quiet, meek, apologetic manner.

Hearing this Kirby perked up jumping up and down on his bed smiling and cheering with poyo's. Waddle Dee was full of joy that Kirby had accepted his apology and so cheerfully thanked Kirby "Thank you Kirby-sama."

At this point the little child-like hero tripped, fell face first off the bed and tumbled to the floor.

"Oh Kirby are you okay?" Dee asked as he rushed over to Kirby, helping him up.

The puffball responded by hugging Dee and yelling out his usual phrase of poyo.

"It's good that you're alright Kirby-sama." Waddle Dee said with a sigh of relief.

To this Kirby responded with a slightly irritated face and said "Kirby." Dee was back to a point of confusion as Kirby stopped hugging him.

"I'm really perplexed now."

At this point he heard a faint laughter resonating from the lavatories. Dee as such turned his head to the restrooms door as it slowly creaked open, pushed open by a long pink tongue. Dee narrowed his amber eyes slightly as the tongue lowered a bit as a dark blue blob with wide white eyes and small black pupils hopped into the room. The little blob hopped once again and manoeuvred its tongue to shut the door behind it. The goo substance creature turned his attention to Kirby and Waddle Dee, smiling slightly but with his tongue still drooping out of his mouth.

"Oh, it's the Dragon Quest slime rip off guy." Dee remarked as his eyes narrowed further.

"Yes it is I the Dragon Quest Slime rip-hey I' am not a rip off of anything, I'm the all original Gooey." Gooey first spoke but then yelled.

Dee just rolled his eyes sighed and then asked "So what do you want?"

"Why I'm here to hang out with Kirby, of course." Gooey replied with a smile beaming on his face.

At this Kirby did a few cheery poyo's waving his hands in succession.

"Hold on a moment how come Kirby's not angry at you as well?" Dee asked as he pointed an accusing hand (well he doesn't have fingers so a hand is all he has to point with) at Gooey.

Gooey let off a large beaming grin and said in his loud, slurred voice "Simple, I call Kirby, Kirby, because Kirby is Kirby."

There was a slight silence in which even the energetic playful Kirby was quiet as Dee stared at Gooey his forehead furrowed.

"I have no idea what you just said." Dee stated keeping the look just mentioned on his face.

"Kirby likes to be called Kirby and nothing else." Gooey this time stated.

"I have been calling Kirby-sama Kirby." protested Dee.

Gooey just shook his body his tongue flailing in the air as Kirby watched with interest his eyes going left and right following the pink body part.

"You used a horonofic though so it's no longer Kirby but Kirby-sama." Gooey replied with a curt nod.

"Wait you mean that's all, that's the reason Kirby-sam-I mean Kirby has been mad at me." The astonished waddle dee yelled with surprise.

Gooey gave another slight nod and replied with "That's right."

The often considered low class creature turned round to his old enemy and now friend and with his quite high voice said  
"Kirby."

Upon hearing his name the gluttonous hero of dreamland bounced up into the air with joy and began to run circles around Dee cheering poyo with glee. The sweet chorus of cheering only stopped when a delicate butterfly came flying in through the open window drifting along a cool gentle breeze. The curious child watched, his blue eyes following every flap of a wing made. The pink hero reached up to touch the butterfly but it flew out of the way at the last second. Kirby reached up again but the butterfly began to fly away from him and soon Kirby was giving chase.

Dee watched as Kirby jumped up onto his bed to reach the butterfly but was soon content with just bouncing up and down on the bed waving his hands about.

"So why did Kirby get mad when I gave him a horonofic to his name?" Dee asked as he watched his friends' simple pleasure.

"I don't know but it was the same with Partner..." Gooey began to say but his voice turned gradually into a whisper.

"He would call Kirby 'Senpai' all the time and Kirby would get mad at him." Gooey's voice faded finally from a whisper to nothing as Dee pondered upon Kirby's reaction.

'It feels odd being so informal," Dee though as he continued watching his best friend frolicking 'I wonder if this is what it feels like to be treated as an equal." Dee was now beaming with a smile or the best a mouth-less person can get too smiling.

Dee and Gooey's train of thought crashed as they heard their friend call out "Gooey, Dee, play." Kirby was waving to them in-between his trampoline jumps.

Dee and Gooey both leaped up and onto the bed, causing the three to almost crash into the ceiling. The trio of friends began to laugh as they tried to bounce high enough to touch the ceiling again in which Gooey won almost immediately due to the extension of reach from his long tongue. This would have continued for even longer until Kirby noticed the butterfly from before flying behind Gooey and Dee. Kirby reached out in the midst of his jump causing him to move forward and collide into his blue blob and red ball companions. The three crashed down onto the floor just next to the small green sheeted bed as the small winged insect flew out the still open window. The trio, dazed and confused lay there as stars spun round their heads.

Upon hearing the sound of soft knocking though the pink ball on top immediately jumped up and rushed towards his small door. Hopping up to the door handle, Kirby pulled on the door, unfortunately squishing him against the wall once pulled but this didn't seem to bother him.

As soon as the little hero got out from behind his own door he saw standing in the doorway a young girl with short black hair, mostly covered by a bright red beret. She had bluish-gray eyes and wore a long-sleeve green collared smock and short grey skirt.

"Hello Kirby." The girl said in a soft and slightly timid voice.

"Adeweene." Kirby chirped proceeding to towards the girl, embracing her in a hug as he pressed his forehead against her single button near the top of her shirt. Dee and Gooey began to get up while hearing the small chatter from outside.

"Did I hear Kirby say Adeleine is here?" The sailor asked as he picked up his tattered hat that had fallen off his head upon his own falling off the bed, and began dusting it.

"Well she's standing in the doorway talking with Kirby so I would presume yes." Gooey said, who having fallen closest to the doors view and was able to see Kirby begin to lead the young artist inside.

As Kirby entered the room jumping up and down ecstatically Adeleine greeted Gooey and Dee "Hello Gooey, hello Dee."

Adeleine paused as she watched the waddle Dee gently pat his old sailor hat, before saying "Uh, Dee are you sure you don't want me to fix that up?"

Dee raised his head upon hearing Adeleine and then looked down at his sailor hat. "No, I'm okay, these cuts are precious memories for me." Dee replied as he placed his hat on his head once more.

"Oh, very well then." Adeleine replied, pausing in spoken words to wonder what significance the hat contained for the small waddle dee.

"Paint, paint Adweene." Kirby chirped as he bounced up and down beside the painter.

"Ooooh yes please do." Gooey joined in as his tongue tinged in delight.

"Sure." Adeleine beamed having already begun setting up her equipment up by the time Gooey joined in to make the pleads for paint a chorus.

Kirby's small house was soon enveloped with cheerful chatter as the friends made general communication.

* * *

About an hour had passed since the young artist arrived and treated her friends to painted food that came fresh from the canvas and it was now that Adeleine raised a topic for the four friends to discuss.

"Did any of you hear about the find in the library?" The painter asked as she took a small bite from her sandwich.

"Library?" Kirby asked.

"Nah, I was here pretty early." Gooey replied as an apple vanished into his dark void of a stomach.

Dee on the other hand swallowed his cookie quickly despite a lack of a mouth (for that matter how does he even talk) and stroked his chin or where he would have a chin if he did have one.

"Well, while I was running through town I did notice a distinct lack of people." Dee commented.

"That would be because everyone was gathering outside the library." Adeleine replied.

"Why would they, the library isn't that special?" Gooey asked in response.

"It's because they found the journal of Takahiro." The ten year old painter answered.

Dee lowered the bottle of water in his hands and with wide eyes exclaimed "Takahiro's journal, does that mean he's back?"

"Takahiro?" asked both Kirby and Gooey as they tilted their bodies to the side.

"Yeah, Takahiro, he went off into the forbidden area of Whispy's Woods eight years ago and never returned." Dee said.

"So, this taka-whatmacallit guy has returned?" Gooey asked as his interest already began to wane.

"No, they've found his journal that he took with him eight years ago." Adeline replied.

"So someone found it and delivered it to the library?"

"No the librarian found it on her desk in the morning."

"So someone broke in and placed it there?"

"No signs of forced entry."

"So it just appeared?"

"Apparently."

Gooey did not reply straight away to the young girl this time despite how he had been doing so rapidly but after a short moment of silence the blue ball shouted "That sounds awesome!"

Gooey had developed quite a bit of excitement from the conversation however before he could speak again Dee contributed to the conversation "So this book has suddenly appeared and everyone thinks it was written by Takahiro."

"The librarian called round Professor Iru and he confirmed it was written by him." The painter replied.

"Iru?" Kirby said questioningly.

"Oh, he's a good friend of Takahiro's." Adeleine replied.

"This does seem awfully strange." stated Dee as he finished off his bottle of water.

"Oh yeah, this all seems so mysterious, it's awesome!" Gooey yelled with joy.

"If you liked that, you'll love this next part then." Adeleine said in a lower, quieter tone.

This piqued the three round creature's interest as they focused their attention on the young artist as she began to speak "In the journal Takahiro tells of how he manoeuvred his way through Hollow Woods and found an ancient ruin built, the remains of a temple from long ago by a near ancient civilisation."

The three were now drawn in by the topic Adeleine was telling them about.

"It was in these ruins that he found tablets describing a worshipped treasure of the people, an item they claimed as their masterpiece that they sealed away deep underground in their former temple." Adeleine finished with the trio mesmerised by the topic.

"Poyoooooooo." Kirby chirped drawing out his poyo longer than usual

Dee used his hand to push his sailor hat on his head properly as he asked out loud "I wonder what this treasure is they speak of?"

"Who cares, a lost treasure means an excuse for an adventure, and yes I've been waiting for this since you left me out of the last one." Gooey yelled with joy and excitement as he bounced up and down repeatedly as his tongue flailed in the air.

"I too would like to see this ancient races idea of a masterpiece however..."

"What?" Gooey and Dee asked simultaneously as Adeleine looked at her two questioning friends.

"We have to go through the Hollow Woods." A silence was formed as both Gooey and Dee were frozen on the spot.

The other two upon realising the difficulty in getting through the incredibly dangerous and forbidden section looked down at the floor glumly.

"On second thoughts, this doesn't seem too safe." Dee said quietly as if he was talking to himself.

"Yeah, I don't think even I could get all the way through," Gooey stated "but I'm sure Kirby could." and at that the artist, the waddle dee and the dark matter made being turned to stare at the innocent pink puffball who greeted the looks with a wave.

"Hey Kirby, want to go on an adventure with us tomorrow?" Gooey asked as he bounded his way closer to Kirby. Kirby though about this for a second but then shook his body (because of a lack of a head).

Gooey was disappointed with this but then Dee added in  
"Hey you could find a lot of treasure and use it to buy lots of food."

At this Kirby just walked over to his large treasure chest and tipped it over. In doing so the chest fell down and gold, sparkling treasures poured out of it. Adeleine and Dee just stood gawking at the pile of artefacts and gold coins where as Gooey just murmured to himself "I forgot about you and Partners journey in that cave."

Kirby gave a slight nod smiling happily when Adeleine came up with an idea to convince the gluttonous hero.

"Kirby did you hear about some of the rumours going about town." Adeleine asked a question to which the pink puffball shook his body.

"There have been many about the treasure, some say its money, others say it's a weapon, and some say it's a work of art however one rumour says that the treasure is in fact a super Maximum Tomato." As Adeleine had finished Kirby had begun to imagine him walking in to find a giant maximum tomato and every time he ate a bit it would reappear.

"Is the treasure really a tomato?" Gooey asked sincerely, completely believing Adeline's tale.

Kirby was also believing it as he begun to drool, daydreaming with a content look on his face when Adeleine asked him  
"So do you want to help us with this adventure?"

Kirby this time jumped up and down with joy, clapping and yelling out "Poyo, Kirby help, Kirby help."

"Very well then, let's set out for the ancient ruin tomorrow." Adeleine stated excitedly.

"Fair enough, I'll go prepare my things then." Dee announced as he began to head for the door.

"Adventure!" Gooey yelled out as he did a quick spin, his eagerness being clearly displayed through his body language.

"See you guys tomorrow morning, outside Whispy Woods right?" Dee both said and asked the remaining group.

"Hai!"

* * *

The orange evening sky had come upon Dreamland, and now it was steadily becoming duller and duller as the Mr. Shine prepared to set. The sun's leaving rays shot between mountain peaks and illuminated the spectacled bird as he sat down by the standing rock.

The old croucar brushed his dark red feathers against the tomb stone, brushing the slight dust that was prepared to settle. On it were the words 'Mrs. Youko Iru, loving daughter and wife'. Professor Iru sighed to himself as he continued to stare at the resting place of his beloved, so caught up in thought he was that he didn't notice Ume coming up to him from behind.

"Are we setting out for the ruins tomorrow sir?" Ume asked, her usually active voice tuned down as she gazed at her sitting teacher.

Iru let out another sigh but only audible to himself as he whispered "I'll promise to come back safe my dear."

Professor Iru stood up and turned to Ume with a small grin on his face "We shall my dear, tomorrow we shall."

* * *

**_Well I hope you enjoyed that as much as it irritated me to write a chapter long talk scene (drove me mad trying to think of different ways to keep it interesting). Anyway two reoccuring characters of the Kirby universe will be appearing in the next chapter and though its somewhat easy to guess who they are try and have a guess at who they are anyway._**

**_Niether of the two characters appeared in the chapter but were both mentioned so I will state that Partner Astaroth and Mrs. Youko Iru are my OCs. MINE!_**

**_Once again I apoligize for the long delay, it seems I underestimated the effort put into the fanfictions but now I have created a timetable for this fanfic that seems more reasonable._**

**_November: Chapter 3  
Christmas: Chapter 4  
New Years day: Chapter 5_**

**_It is questionable whether I can update the third chapter during November because of two oneshots I' am working on (they are both on my profile page) however I will try my best. I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 2 of Kirby: Ancient Ruin Adventure!_**


	4. Venture Forth!

_**Let's see here, when was it I last updated? October? Well I'm sorry for the extremely long wait for this chapter and I'm grateful for your patience. While since my last update to now I have uploaded three oneshots, been a judge for two smash bros fanfic contests and realising that this chapter is longer than all previous chapters of this fanfic combined I have no excuses for the delay. From now on though the writing should be easier and I should be able to get most chapter out monthly (I still have two oneshots I wish to work on before dedicating myself solely to this fic.**_

**_There are one or two scenes that I felt could have been improved on and edited more but I really wanted to get this chapter out of the way and give all my readers something to read. I feel that while the two scenes are somewhat confusing the chapter on a whole is worthy to be uploaded. On that note I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter._**

**_

* * *

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**__****_Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure! _**

_**Chapter 3: Venture Forth! Passing by Whispy isn't easy!**_

Sleep was often a moment of tranquillity, and for King Dedede it was a moment he enjoyed very much. So much that he did not like being awoken until he had decided he had slept long enough. Today his sleep seemed strange, he was within his space of tranquillity as usual, but it felt as if the place was shaking, as if he was nodding continuously. This bothered the penguin king little at first but it proved consistent and further proved annoying, so he opened his eye a notch and leaned forward only to see a dull light and experience a falling motion. It turned out that while he was asleep he been placed onto his sedan chair and had been carried about by the waddle dee's. Upon leaning forth though his momentum unsettled the waddle dees that slowed their pace, whilst the King fell forth. Oh yeah, the fall.

'Thud'

"Oh dear, Heika." Yelped one of the many waddle dee's before him and his fellow troops rushed over to aid there king.

"W-what in tarn nation is going on?" The rudely awakened penguin yelled with fury as he pushed away his men and got to his feet "why the heck is it so dark out here, or better yet, why are we outside?"

"C-calm down no kimi." A lone waddle doo managed to whimper as along with the group of men he began to back off in fear of the well known anger of King Dedede.

"Heika, do you not remember," A gordo, and the only one immune to the sense of fear that spread in the other subjects, piped "we are currently heading off to the dark woods, but considering our distance we had to leave as early as possible".

While many would assume it was because he had just woken up, and in not a very gentle manner, that the king was slow to put the pieces together and remember but the more likely answer would be a slow, lazy paced mind and his general stupidity. But he was not of such a degree that he could not put it together eventually, as such the king soon remembered.

"I did? Yes, I did. Good job there and all but the next time you try and wake me like that and I'll be docking your pay for the months to come till your retirement." The king began to praise but, though in a low tone, snipped with bitterness from the disruption of his joyful slumber.

Despite the threat that would have shattered the wits of any of the other men, the gordo simply nodded and continued "I apoligise Heika. You often make it clear that we should not disrupt you early and I considered the possibility of transporting you to the bottom safely. I knew not of the two left feet of the waddle dee's".

The waddle dee's glared at the gordo for this remark, but the king cared for little of it as he hopped back onto his sedan chair and sighed.

"Yeah well, I'm awake now. No slacking now boys, full speed ahead." The King ordered as he begun to shift in his chair, trying to get himself comfortable. The waddle dee's and doo's became alert immediately, the red creatures raising the sedan chair and moving carefully down the path of Mt. Dedede.

"Let's go get that there treasure." King Dedede guffawed as his men silently and obediently obeyed.

* * *

Some time had passed by since the day began and the sun had slwoly risen from beyond the hills, casting its rays of light upon Popopo town. As the villagers began to emerge out from their dwellings, the chattering began, and the day had truly begun. For one Waddle dee though the activity of the day was still awaiting him, or it awaiting him. It matters little what way around you see the future events unfold but right now Dee was the first of his friends to awake, prepare and arrive outside of Whispy Wood's forest.

Sat on a stump, he nervously touched the ends of his feet, silently beckoning his friends to hurry.

"Seriously guys, you all woke up nice and early before." Dee mumbled to himself, prodding at his own feet as though they were of unknown identity to him. The brushing sound of feet against the grass, and the crunch noise of feet against dirt alerted Dee. Perking up he saw Adeleine coming towards him, the second to wake on the day of adventure.

"Hello Dee, you're up early as always." The child greeted her friend as her pace quickened to meet him.

"Well, us waddle dees are early risers, we have to be." Dee replied with a sense of pride as he hopped off the tree stump glad that company was now with him.

"So you've been here since?" Adeliene asked with a giggle, knowing quite well that her friend had arrived much before herself.

"Oh, since about sunrise, six-ish I guess," Dee said, unsure of his answer as he thought on it "yeah, a bit after six in the morning".

"I know we agreed to meet in the morning, but there is such a thing as being too punctual," The painter cheered as she sat down on the green grass of green greens "besides, you know Kirby and Gooey take a while to get up in the mornings".

Dee nodded his head, inclining agreement but said no words on it as he too sat down. Dee tapped the ends of his feet nervously as he had before, looking to his friend to see her gaze transfixed skyward. Turning his attention upward as well Dee saw nothing but, well, sky. Dark sky becoming pale as shades of purple and black leaked away, and the colour blue spread further and further. Seeing nothing peculiar Dee looked back down at his friend, fixed in the same state as before, and watched.

"Do I have something on my face" Adeliene asked as she noticed Dee looking at her.

"Wh-wait. What? Oh no, no I was just, just thinking," Dee broke out of his daydreams with a blush and mumbled quickly "I was wondering what you were looking at."

"Oh" Adeliene replied "I was looking at the sky."

Dee looked up once more to see the lighter blue flush through, adorning the sky above "Why?"

Adeliene blinked at first, as if confused by the question, but then smiled and said "Simply because it looks nice, that's why."

The little Waddle Dee flushed for a moment, looked down and agreed "Yeah, it does."

For a moment there was sweet silence, and a blissful mood was set in the early morning. Of course this was because Gooey was not there and as such when he did appear it became-

"Hi there guys, been waiting long" Gooey cheered with emphasis as he appeared between Dee and Adeliene.

"Wait, where did you just come from?" Dee yelled in shock as he flipped off of his back and onto his feet.

"Home."

"I mean now, you just appeared all of a sudden."

Gooey looked over at Dee, hopped once to reach his friend and said "There are some things we are just never meant to know."

Dee didn't respond and silence came once again aside for the whistling air.

"Good morning Gooey" Adeline greeted the dark matter blob in a cheery mood, as if the friend had not just conversed with Dee and only then arrived.

"Morning to you too Adeliene," Gooey replied in good faith "Just Kirby we're waiting for then."

Adeliene nodded "Yeah, he shouldn't be long though".

Adeliene was correct as in this as soon a humming could be heard, and as the small hero came bounding along, the humming grew louder for the ones awaiting his arrival.

"Hiii." Kirby greeted his friends from afar, and proceeded to alter his usual pace of skipping to that of a rapid sprint, eager to see his friends.

"How do you feel today pal? Up for adventure I hope!" Gooey said with a child like enthusiasm as his cheery friend nodded his head.

Adeline smiled and said "It's nice to be able to go on adventure together again. Maybe we should have invited Dedede to join us as well?"

Overhearing this was Dee who let out an alarmed shriek from the sudden remembrance of why he wished for the groups quick meeting.

"King Dedede! That reminds me I saw the King earlier with some of his troops and he entered the forest." Dee spat out hurriedly.

"Daydayday?" Kirby asked, trying to confirm what Dee said from his flustered and rushed dialogue.

"Yeah, Dedede. It seems he's heading for the Dark Woods as well."

"Hold on! The fat bird is good pals with that log pile which means he'd be allowed into the woods right?" Gooey added.

"Whispy's supposed to be pretty strict about entry to the Dark Woods but you never know." As Dee thought on all this he noticed the absence of two of his friends and realised that rather than contributing to the serious topic the painter and puffball had begun to go into the forest.

"Wait, shouldn't you two be a bit more concerned about this?" Dee asked with a tone containing both his worries and frustrations at the easygoing group.

"Why should we be worried?"

"Daydayday's friend!"

Gooey and Dee could not help but wonder how the two, particularly Kirby who is a long time enemy of King Dedede, could consider the main villain of the series to be there friend.

"I-I give up with you people." Dee commented as he lowered his arms and admitted his defeat, slowly trudging after the Kirby, Adeline and now Gooey who had bounced on after them.

* * *

"Let's see now. We've just past the bandits stop, and it's a good thing he wasn't there. Now up ahead should be two bushes which hide a medium sized rock." Professor Iru said aloud as he walked forward, reading his friend's journal at the same time.

"Professor," Ume called out as she hopped over to the wizened crow, holding a map in one hand "I have a map of the forest so why are you looking through the journal entries."

Iru stopped and looked away from the leather-bound book for a moment and at his student.

"Dear Ume, the main objective of all this is to find out where my good buddy Takahiro is, and the logical way of tracking him down is to follow every move he made." Iru said as he tucked the book under his wing.

"But sir, the journal says he went through the forest. He even got past- before Ume could finish her sentence Iru had placed a wing over her mouth.

Leaning his head to her ear he whispered "They say a forest hears all."

The poppy bros. Girl appeared confused at this and so the croucar tried again to convey his veiled message "They say that the in a town the king knows all."

One more it appeared Ume did not understand, however she soon noticed the professor gazing at the trees and nodded. Iru removed his wing. A wind navigated its way through the trees and brushed against the leaves calling all in the forest to rustle.

Iru signalled for his student to follow him and the two soon found themselves in a small clearing where the trees gave way.

"So long as we keep quiet, Whispy should not be able to hear our conversation."

"Yes professor."

"Whispy Woods is not only very protective of the mysteries of dark woods but also gets very irritated by it. He would impede our progress if he knows are plans." Iru explained, occasionally glancing over his shoulder.

"Why professor? What could be in the woods that Whispy doesn't want people to know?" Ume asked trying to keep her voice down.

"There are many theories about it to which Takahiro speculates upon. The most common theory is about a hidden treasure though it is not known what form it takes. Most assume it to be gold, others believe it to be vast land while some say it is something or artistic value. Rumours even suggest it to be a great sword wielded by the Noble Knight of legends fame."

"Noble Knight, isn't he just a legend?" Ume said, her whispering fading a bit in her reply.

"The Noble Knight by my account did indeed exist, as his sword does too. I was very young at the time but I do remember the stories I was told of him. He had great stamina and endurance, battling for days on end without a break. In all that time his sword Isabella never once failed him and is said to be unbreakable." Iru finished.

"A-and this sword could possibly be somewhere in the Dark Woods?" Ume asked excitedly, her volume increasing.

"Keep your voice down." Iru scolded.

"S-sorry professor" Ume said meekly as Iru walked past her.

"Come along now."

"Yes sir!"

As the croucar and bomber walked off further into the luscious green forest, a rustling could heard by a row of trees. A purple armoured figure wielding a short trident emerged from behind a tree.

"N-noble Knight's sword. I've got to tell the crew about this."

* * *

Within Whispy Wood's forest, not too far from the clearing where Iru and Ume had their conversation, a group of loyal knights were setting down for a brief rest. Tired from training, the crew were prepping for lunch.

"So where did Trident Knight go off to again?" A large (for a dreamlander) purple armoured knight asked with a deep voice, relaxed in tone.

"He went off to find some firewood as Axe Knight-san refused to." A green armoured knight with a cone shaped head (though if Kirby were here he would see it as a loaf of French bread).

"Oh sure I have an axe which must mean I'm a woodsman, clearly with a passion for cutting down trees." A walking skull with a Viking style helmet, Axe Knight, said in an eerie voice that carried on even after being said, a sarcastic tone rolling with the seemingl echo of his words.

"Taking time, been a while." A small purple rotating creature encased in armour said in a computerised voice "Should be back now, where, where?"

"Do not worry Javelin Knight-san, there is nothing that poses a threat to him or us in this forest." The green swordsman, Sword Knight replied.

"I do wish he'd hurry. I'm getting really hungry for something other than raw apples." The larger mace wielding knight, Mace Knight, commented.

"Yay, then we'll go up from apples to cooked apples. I can barely hold in my excitement at this one of a kind prospect," Axe Knight replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm "how much longer do we have to stay in this forest for."

"Until we find Sailor Dee!" A deep voice brimmed with strength and authority was heard from amongst the trees. Coming out from the shade and into the light was a blue masked ball not all that bigger than Kirby, and endowed with a cape and sword.

"Metaknight-sama." Trident Knight suddenly beeped and tipped its head/body to the masked warrior. The other members of the fearsome crew, the Meta-Knights, all bowed to greet their leader as well.

"All is well I take it sir?" Sword Knight asked while bowing.

"Certainly, but I feel my skills are being wasted in my spars, I had to stop early for Blade Knight couldn't go on," The knight explained as he sheathed his legendary sword, Galacta, and wrapped his cape around him "My sword and I thirst for stronger opponents."

"Sir, may I intrude in asking why we are still looking in the forest. He could be back in town you know?" Mace Knight asked as he tapped his mace against the floor.

"We have already checked once and there was no trace of him. I do believe however he is nearby, I feel it." Metaknight said with a hand over what I would presume to be his heart "By the way where is Trident Knight?"

"H-Here sir!" A voice yelled from deeper into the woods and the sound of running feet could be heard. An abrupt thudding sound could also be heard; presumably the person of said actions had fallen over but soon went back into running. Trident Knight, a small ball creature encased in authentic Japanese style war armour, soon came into view of the entre, puffing and panting.

Meta Knight paid immediate attention to his soldier and the surrounding vicinity "Trident Knight, what's wrong, were you attacked?"

"N-no sir, I wasn't, b-but sir, I've got big news to tell."

"You may speak." Metaknight replied after having a quick look round him, checking the tree's for Whispy Woods presence.

"I was looking for some firewood when I overheard a conversation saying there is evidence that suggests Noble Knights sword Isabelle is deep within Dark Woods." Trident Knight yelled out.

"N-Noble Knight." Ax Knight stuttered "Don't be ridiculous, Noble Knights just a myth."

"He is not a myth." Meta Knight bellowed out at his soldier who lost his footing and fell from a result of shock "I have heard tales of him and his sword, and many historical facts point to such a person once existing. Trident Knight you honestly tell me that his sword may be within the forbidden Dark Woods."

"I-it's what I heard. The old bird had a book from a man who ventured in there and he was saying there was something of great value there, a-and that Isabella was one of the more prominent possibilities."

"Someone ventured to Dark woods. Only known is Takahiro. Never seen since." Javelin Knight chimed.

"This seems awfully sketchy." Sword Knight contemplated.

"It matters not at the moment. The chance of obtaining the everlasting sword of endurance wielded by Noble Knight is too good of an opportunity to pass up," Meta Knight declared with mighty authority "Men, we set off for Dark Woods now."

The crew looked at each other uneasily at first but soon shook it off and roared in agreement.

* * *

Many a wounded native of the forest lay as well as the beasts and bugs that dwell, for all saw right to pick a fight but were smite by the penguins might. Or that would have been the case if King Dedede was willing to deal with the creatures that blocked his way. But after getting into a comfortable position he decided to have his men do the job. Now this would normally be a good thing to do but when most of your troops are waddle dees it serves little difference, even professionally trained soldier waddle dees.

"Why, this is taking too long. Can't you guys quicken the pace a little." King Dedede groaned as he leaned back in his throne.

"Sorry no kimi, we are trying our hardest." One Waddle Doo replied.

"Well try harder then." The King ordered.

To this one of the waddle dee's lifting the King's transport chuckled "should have seen that one coming," and then sighed.

The King and his troops were not progressing at amazing speed, mostly due to the wide and heavy (in truth it was the royal who perched on top who was the heavy one) mode of transport that made travelling through the forest difficult.

"Hey, you don't suppose anyone else is after the treasure, do you." the waddle dee up front asked the gordo.

"Only the most daring would go into Dark Woods and there are few like that in Popopo town." The gordo replied.

"Oh, what about Kirby-san then?"

At this question the entire troop stopped and King Dedede brought his attention onto the said dee.

"W-What do you mean?" A nearby Waddle Doo asked.

"Well if you think about it, with the kind of treasure we're talking about you could buy a lot of food. So, Kirby could be after it, as he is also both brave and reckless enough to go through Dark Woods."

"Hey don't joke about Kirby-san in front of the king," One of the waddle doo's said "Right your majes-uh, your majesty?"

King Dedede appeared to have gone into a trance upon hearing how Kirby could be within the forest, looking for the treasure as well. Rusted gears churned in his brain and he began to imagine it all.

_King Dedede (looking much better than he does) speeds along dashingly through purple hued trees and into a large bright clearing where he see's before him a giant treasure chest overflowing with glittering gold. As he goes to claim what is rightfully his the meddling puffball Kirby (looking much more ugly and sinister than he does) arrives and kicks the great and wonderful king out of the way._

_"Ha, ha, ha. This is my treasure Dedede, all mine." Kirby maliciously snarls as he somehow picks up the enormous chest and runs away laughing maniaclly to himself._

_"Darn you Kirby, the treasure I worked so hard for. Why?" King Dedede yelled out as Kirby left him wounded in the forest to be preyed upon by the many beasts eager for revenge against the just and noble penguin that so easily beat them to a pulp. Taking advantage of his state, they attacked King Dedede._

Back in reality the troops were starting to get worried at their leaders drooling mummified state. But then the king of dreamland burst into flames as his anger flew out.

"Why that their Kirby, meddling with me all the time. I'll never let him get his hands on my treasure." King Dedede bellowed as he leaped from his seat and began charging through the forest like a lumbering giant. What? You expect him to sprint.

"W-wait up king!" The troops called out to him as they dropped the throne and chased after their fired up ruler.

* * *

A large bear like animal dodged the tossed bronze sickle and chuckled "You can't hit me like that Kirby."

The Grizzo continued chucking until Kirby pointed behind him and smirked.

"Huh, I don't hear the cutter blade coming back." The Grizzo noted as he turned round to see a shadow looming over him, and a cut down tree falling upon him.

The yellow furred Grizzo shrieked in fear as the tree crushed him, rendering him unconscious.

"Poyo" Kirby cheered as he started to wave his arms up and down, humming a familiar tune.

"We really shouldn't have let him play that game should we?" Adeline asked her companions as she watched the puffball now adorned with a metallic duck billed hat do a small dance routine.

"I'm wondering how he even played the game. It's mostly text." Dee pointed out as he too watched his friends joyous victory.

"So when are you two going to do any work, it's just been me and Kirby dealing with all these foes." Gooey whined.

Dee spun round, pointing at the dark matter accusingly and shouted out "What do you mean you and Kirby, you ate one waddle doo in order to get a beam ability and that's it."

Gooey lay on his side and stared blankly at Dee before reply "So, that's more than what you've done."

"Hey, I'm no fighter now and I've done my fair share." Dee argued back.

"Such as..."

"I-I-uh-I did the narration about Kirby's cutter power and for your beam power."

"I was surprised you could get your voice to go that deep, putting that aside shouldn't we be moving on?"

Dee nodded his head, and called out to Kirby "Kirby, it's time to move on."

Kirby stopped his dance to look over at Dee.

"Hai" Kirby chirped as he hopped over to Dee and Gooey, who was just finishing off an apple. The trio were about to head off when they noticed that they were in fact a trio at the moment.

"Hey, where's Adeline?" Dee asked as he stopped midstep. The group looked round but saw no sign of their artist companion. Kirby however hopped to the side and soon ran off.

"Adeween." Kirby called out as he rushed over to the painter who was busy at work.

"Hold on a moment guys, let me just finish this off." Adeliene called back as she checked the winding tree to whom an apple balanced on a thin, tipping branch.

"Apple poyo" Kirby cheered as he noticed the gleaming red fruit that was the object of Adeliene's painting.

"Hey Adeliene, can we have the apple after you're done with?" Gooey asked as he licked his lips at the snack.

"I don't see why not."

"Guys, we can't be dilly-dawdling like this. If King Dedede gets to the treasure first he'll be sure to keep it for himself." Dee moaned at his friends constant stops.

"Poyo!" Kirby gasped as the little guy went into a daze, imagining what would happen.

_Kirby skipped his way through purple hued trees and into a clearing where a glittering tomato lay atop a wooden carved pedistal. Suddenly from behind the pedistal King Dedede leaped up and snatched the tomato._

_"Ha, ha. Look! I now have the tomato." The red robed King taunted his nemesis but then looked into Kirby's eyes and decided otherwise. _

_The King held out the tomato and declared "Let's share the tomato my good friend."_

_Kirby proceeded to jump with joy and as the two former foes ate into their respective tomato pieces they became the best of friends._

"No way, nuh-uh, that isn't going to happen." Gooey added as he stared up at the thought bubble hovering over the Dreamlander's head.

"Guys, seriously we need to hurry." Dee said frantically.

"Don't worry, Dedede's a friend remember." Adeleine said with a smile on her face as she started adding the finishing touches to her painting.

"Yes, but also a greedy friend, and when you add treasure in the occasion he'll be going to great lengths to get it. Heck he'll probably have the whole forest taken away."

Adeline paused mid-stroke upon hearing this, and suddenly quickened the pace. Finishing with care but at great speed she put her stuff away safely.

"If he does that I'll never be able to see it. He could damage it in the transaction, guys hurry up." Adeline said as she began sprinting into the forest. Kirby and Gooey who had split the apple in two and were now enjoying it nodded their heads and leapt after Adeline. Dee just stood there upset that no one had agreed to go when he had asked.

* * *

Iru and Ume walked on the clear path, shrouded in shadow from the lining row of trees. This was the safe path, albeit also the longer path, and was used whenever one of friendly circumstances wished to meet with the protector of the forest. Only those who were considered as harmless or those who were considered friends were allowed to trek this path. If they were not then the trees would barricade the entrance and the traveller would be forced to go through the territory of the forest dwellers.

Unlike the short and dangerous path, the longer path enabled a traveller to approach Whispy Woods from the front, where he would greet you, as was with the case of the professor and his student.

"Why hello there professor," Whispy Woods boomed with his naturally loud and echoing voice that made one feel as if they were in a tunnel "You haven't visited as of late now have you."

"W-why no Whispy-tono I haven't," Iru replied nervously as he stepped within the clearing known as Whispy's domain. The tree's shades of brown lined the clearing, and the only light came skyward, casted by the sun and pass the odd structure of the far larger, hollow tree that served as a crafty shortcut for oft foes of Whispy such as Kirby in many a case.

"Yeah, it's been a good year or two I believe," The large tree boss chuckled to himself "Your pestering me had always been annoying but now after so much time apart I find it to have been rather joyous to have such respectable company."

Iru was silent at this and Ume decided not to add any comment, leaving the discussion to her senior.

"Actually Whispy-tono," Iru began, catching Whispy's attention "I'm here today because of such old times."

Whispy seemed to frown at this, and shifted on the spot a little.

"What do you mean Iru-kun?" Whispy whispered.

Iru said nothing and simply held up Takahiro's journal. Whispy simply stared at it, not recognising it and wondering where the croucar was going with this.

"Don't recognise this? Well that's a problem for this journal came from the woods behind you." Iru proclaimed as he kept ahold of the book above his head.

This unsettled the large tree as a flash of anger passed in his eyes.

"That's nonsense," Whispy yelled, hints of his anger obviously flaring his voice "How can you claim such a book came from the dark woods."

Iru smiled and said with a mischievous smirk "For this is the journal of Takahiro-san, my good friend who ventured into the Dark woods eight years ago."

"That guy again," Whispy growled, the hatred rising alongside the anger "I make one exception after putting up with his pleading for so long and he causes nothing but trouble."

Whispy caught sight of Iru's intense gaze, a question lying beneath his eyes and as such Whispy answered "No!"

"No, Takahiro-kun has not left the Dark Woods as far as I'm aware of."

"What do you mean by 'as far as you're aware of'," Ume pitched in, gaining a look of disproval from the croucar beside her.

"I cannot monitor what happens in the Dark Woods as I sleep, I only hear the trees of the forest constantly as the trees admist the woods are of a different kind to I. For all I know he could have escaped by flight and soared over my forest. It would not be the first thing to arrive by flight, one even crashed so heavily into the dark woods that I felt my roots quake." Whispy Woods explained.

"Rather odd." Iru murmured to himself "Whispy-tono I need to ask you this one favour."

Whispy raised a brow or he would if he had one but nonetheless the expression was the same.

"Please, grant me and my assistant here permission to enter the dark woods." Iru pleaded as he looked up at the one whose permission was needed to enter the dark woods.

"No." Whispy replied at once.

Then dawned silence as the two looked to one another, Whispy awaiting Iru's response where as Iru was waiting for Whispy to explain the reasons behind his refusal. Realising an explanation would come once he inquired about it, the professor did just that by asking "So... Why are we not allowed to enter the Dark Woods?"

"Because it's forbidden! How many times do I have to tell you people that entering the forbidden woods just so happens to be forbidden!" Whispy bellowed as heated steam sparked from his mouth, flustering his cheeks.

"You mentioned things crashing into the Dark Woods from time to time. We could investigate these things for you if you permit us entrance." Ume added nervously, being left out of most of the conversation she had accidently blurted out a thought of hers before proper analysis to deem it suitable. Iru had been prepared to scold her for speaking without warning but the old croucar realised the possibilities and advantages of following the chain of thought brought up. Contrary to the expected reaction, the large pale brown tree simply smirked and replied

"That's nothing to worry about. I had my children investigate such matters and they find nothing of interest, though the crashing one left no mark on the ground and did not damage the trees either so I often wonder if it did crash in the woods at all."

"Have you checked the ruins?"

"Of course not. I'd never allow my children to go into the – Hold on! How do you know about the ruins?"

Iru chuckled loudly upon witnessing the expression of shock on the living tree's face as he began to hold up the battered journal.

"Why, its talks all about it in this here journal. Well, all about the exterior of the ruins at least, the entries end on the day Takahiro-san decides it's time to enter the ruins."

Whispy was certainly unsettled by this sudden knowledge, and was about to retaliate with a quickly thought up reply but closed his mouth, and rethought his words.

"This-this does not change anything. My rules are clear about the Dark woods and how no one is allowed to enter without my permission."

The Croucar continued to smirk though in a sly manner more commonly seen on a TAC than a crow, and began to speak with an eerie sense of a threat "Well if that's how it is then me and my assistant will just have to force our way through."

Whispy Woods and Ume were equally surprised to hear of such an announcement. Ume wondered if her senior was having a senile moment whereas Whispy assumed that the old bird was cracking a good joke.

"Now that's a good one. You had me fooled for a second, haha!" Whispy Woods laughed in a jolly fashion but looking still at Professor Iru he realised that the smirk had not vanished and the eyes showed a bright determination, "You're kidding right?"

When it became apparent that Iru was not bluffing Whispy became quite solemn and responded with "You surely don't believe that you can defeat me?"

Whereas Whispy reacted with stunned silence and disbelief Ume opted with the assumption that the professor was stating the truth and willing to go through with the plan. This caused the poppy bros girl to panic in such a scenario.

"Professor, what are you thinking? There's no way we could even hope to take him on." Ume muttered as she flustered about.

Whispy nodded in recognition at this "The girl's right! I'm not some kind of push over first boss y'know."

Despite the declaration of battle Iru was not concerned in the least by it all and continued to look straight at the long lived guardian of the forest.

"Don't worry Ume, I expected something like this to occur and while I had wished to avoid it I asked for his assistance in dealing with this big old lug in case he stopped us from entering," Professor Iru then turned his attention to a nearby row of bushes and announced "Now come out and take care of Whispy, Kirby!"

Whispy Woods eyes lit up at this and his voice boomed all of a sudden "What! Kirby!"

The guardian of the forest immediately turned his all of his attention to the single bushy bush where his puffball nemesis lay hidden. The tree gritted his wooden teeth, grinding and grounding them as memories of the humiliating defeats delivered by the gluttonous hero flashed through his mind. His eyes burned like wild fire, and the more Whispy's anger surged, the more intense the flames in his eyes became, like giving logs to a fire. As a result his stare fuelled by wild emotions intensified. The tree had now reasoned with himself that today would not be like the days of the past, this time he was prepared for the battle. The moment Kirby steps out of the bush will be his last the tree sounded. In the midst of waiting for the pink blob to emerge to encounter his very destruction a gentle breeze blew past, echoing silence and ruffling the very leaves the great tree adorned.

"Wait a minute?" Whispy thought out loud to himself in a low and quiet tone as he looked over to the gate too witness the professor and his assistant climbing over it, and heading off into the Dark Woods.

"You tricked me!" Whispy called out with all his might as the duo succeeded in getting past their biggest problem "Come back here now!"

* * *

"You tricked me!"

The burst of anger woved its way into the forest, and the penguin king and his loyal soldiers were close enough to the source to hear it clearly.

"What was that?"

"That was Whispy-tono!"

"Oh no, we made him angry, we must have!"

"Mummy!"

The group of Dees and Doos panicked at the sound of the usually calm guardian of the forest erupting with ferocity.

"Heika, it appears we are indeed close." The Gordo mentioned calmly to the seated King.

"I know that already you buffoon! I'm just resting a bit." The King replied as he lay against a thick but now trembling tree.

"I apologise Heika. I did not mean to question your wisdom and wished only to advise you of our task." The Gordo said, once more in his calm voice and retaining his calm composure.

"Heh, don't fret men. I and the big oak of this here forest are on good terms so I have nothing to fear." King Dedede proudly stated as he adjusted his position, leaning further back on the weeping tree.

All the waddle dee's and waddle doo's breathed a sigh of relief from their nonexistent mouths, while the Gordo simply rolled his eyes, waiting for the group to think back on what the king had just said.

"Wait? I? What about us?" A Waddle Doo screamed in panic as he realised the King had only mentioned his own safety.

"Meh, depends how charitable I'm feeling."

With this comment the minions panicked once more and bowed before their King, pleading to be spared. The King seemed to enjoy this moment, seeing the how reliant his people were on him. They were thankful for his generosity, and only his. So he was taken aback when, not only did his Gordo aide not bow, but when one Waddle Dee was still standing with a hand raised as high as it could. With a sweep of his hammer the King juggled the little reddish-brown skinned creature closer to him and proceeded to ask with a tinge of anger "What?"

"Well sir, you see, uh" The Waddle Dee tried to speak but couldn't find his words and currently stammered.

The Kings patience grew thin as he barked "Spit it out already?"

"Yes, I-I was wondering what Whispy-tono could be annoyed at and I thought that maybe he's angry about Kirby." The Waddle dee finally murmured as the King held him by a wing. The hold on his head grew tighter then as the King realised that this would mean that his nemesis was ahead of him.

Tossing the soldier of his aside and into a tree, the King jumped up and ordered "Men we haven't time to waste, move out."

The King ran off with his men in tow as a Waddle Dee simply groaned to himself "Why me?"

* * *

"I won't let you beat me this time you little runt!"

Whispy spun round in recognition of a voice, in which in the instant he did the source of the voice ran into the clearing.

"Oh, King Dedede-kun," Whispy exclaimed as he saw the panting, breathless figure of his royal friend and occasional employer, before him "it's been a while."

As the rest of the loyal troops of the king came into the clearing (including a waddle dee with a large bandage on his forehead) King Dedede replied "Yeah, yeah, now where is Kirby?"

"Wait, you mean Kirby's actually here?" Whispy Woods said aloud as he looked round him, checking the area for the ever energetic puffball.

"I heard you yell didn't I? The only person who could make you that mad is Kirby."

"The reason I yelled?" The tree asked out loud to himself, and in an instant had regained his earlier frustration.

"No it wasn't Kirby! I was tricked by that damn professor and now he's snuck off into the Dark Woods." Whispy Woods explained to the group of much smaller beings.

"What! Someone got into those woods." The King yelled with frustration as he slammed his hammer at the ground.

"It surely must be professor Iru-sensei, the friend of Takahiro-san and the possessor of the explorers journal, who snuck by." The King's aide added.

"Professor Iru's a bit old to be doing something this reckless?"

"But Takahiro-san is supposed to be a reckless fellow and the two were close friends."

"The croucar's really smart and he has the journal."

"Wish we had the journal."

"That would make things easier."

"I wonder if his cute assistant is with him."

As the bungle of men discussed to one another the circumstance and about the professor, the stone faced Gordo hovered over to his King in order to talk.

"That bird's ahead of us. He shouldn't be much of a problem when it concerns the treasure as I could easily steal it off of him." King Dedede said to himself as he rubbed his chin.

"We can do so with ease, surely." The Gordo added.

"The journal was what told us about the treasure right? Why didn't you have my men take it?" The King asked his aide who was without a reply for once.

"I-I did not think of it at the time. You gave no orders to retrieve it and I can't imagine anything posing a threat to you Heika." The gordo praised King Dedede, sweeping his own mistake like water under the bridge.

"That's right, we don't need no stupid journal. I'm the great King Dedede after all." King Dedede stated as he raised his wings, hammer clutched high above his head.

The men stared in awe, except for the Gordo who was wiser than the many men of the King's services, and the injured Waddle Dee who was still feeling pretty sore about being chucked into a tree. Whispy had now turned his attention to the King, wandering what they were all talking about.

"Hello there my dear friend Whispy, it's been so long." King Dedede began to say as the scenery around him and the beginning boss began to sparkle with glorifying friendship.

"It hasn't been too long my good friend." Whispy Woods replied with same twinkle in his eyes.

"I know it's been a while but I have something to ask of you."

"Oh ask away, I'll gladly give you anything."

"Can I be allowed to enter the Dark Woods then?"

"No!"

"Oh, well in that case, why the hell not!" The King broke the field of happiness as he shouted out at his supposed friend.

"Because it's forbidden! How many times do I have to tell people this before you begin to understand?" Whispy shouted back with equal annoyance.

"Well I'm the King so you should make an exception for me!" Dedede retaliated.

"Like hell I will, I'm not letting another person pass here." The large tree stated with determination as he stared down at the hammer wielding oaf.

The King merely grumbled to himself, looking over his shoulder and to his aide who was in deep thought. King Dedede was in a pickle currently as he placed a hand on his chin and thought hard. Naturally for a man who doesn't do much thinking it took a while before anything came to mind, and once it did it was only after an apple fell on his head.

"I got it," The proud king blurted out as a smile grew on his face, and then proceeded to point to some nearby trees "was that Kirby I just saw."

The men just fell over at the stupidity of their leader though it seemed to work as Whispy Woods turned his attention to the trees.

"Yes, it worked. Now men lets hurry past him." The large, tubby penguin called back quietly to his disbelieving men, particularly the Gordo who was having a hard time even comprehending the absurdity of this cliche plan. Despite this the men chose to chase after their King, unaware that Whispy Woods was pretending to fall for their plan.

"The king and his men are truly idiots to think I'd fall for such a trick again," Whispy said to himself as he kept a lookout on the dashing group beside him "now I just have to turn round and teach them-Kirby!"

Whispy yelled out the name of his hated foe for a reason as from among the tree a small circular shaped creature was stepping out with feet just like that of the puffball warrior of the stars. Whispy wasted no time, forgetting all about his plan and unleashing an attack from below at the approaching figure. The brown, earth covered roots were halted though by a swift swing of a blade, as the cape wearing masked warrior cut through them with ease.

It was here that Whispy realised his error, staring not at Kirby but at the blue ball swordsman, Metaknight, who with glowing eyes of red appeared to be both angry and hostile at the sudden attack. Whispy turned round to the gate, hoping to spot the King and his men about to enter but wasting no time it appeared that the King had hammered his way through the gate, reducing it to lumber.

"I knew peace negations would make no difference in the matter but I never thought you would be in such a hurry for conflict." Metaknight said calmly, Galacta still raised above his head and in the direction of his attacker.

Gaurdian of the forest turned to the speaker and two eyes locked, gazing at one another calmly and making not a sound.

"I can't believe you guys had forgot about me." Voices were head from amongst the forest in which Metaknight had burst from, and coming closer to the confrontation, and also into the clearing where the dark warrior's crew.

"Look we're sorry for forgetting you, kay." Sword Knight reasoned with his good chum and fellow recruit, Blade Knight, a green armoured knight with red tassels at the tip of the helmet and large shoulder pads.

"I'm not childish enough to hold a grudge, why, leaving me behind is nothing to fret about." Blade Knight grumbled in a stern tone.

This lead to Ax Knight replying in his sarcastic trait "Yeah, you sure sound like you've gotten over it."

This in turn led to a slight chuckling amongst the group of deadly weapon wielders except for Blade Knight who was the target of the joke, and merely grumbled to himself in response. The laughter died out though as the group came into the clearing, and following suit with the heavy atmosphere between the two veteran fighters, drew their own weapons in preparation.

"Metaknight-kun, why on dreamland are you here?" Whispy asked sternly, his temper having focused into a dark abode, creeping through and manifesting into the current chilling glare across the tree's face.

Metaknight nor his crew budged, waiting calmly for any sudden movements. Deeming it safe to speak but keeping an eye out just in case, Metaknight replied "I'm here to enter the Dark Woods, preferably without your interference."

Too this Whispy chuckled, seemingly happy with this but returning at once to his intense rage "Why I've had to deal with two groups of nuisances that wished to do just that. First that bird brained professor snuck past me and then because of your well timed distraction that other obese bird brain, King Dedede-kun, also managed to clamber into the Woods with his posse."

Surprised by this new information Metaknight instantly replied "You mean the King has gotten into the woods!"

At the simple reminder of this an apple dropped down from Whispy's branches, but with swift precision the masked swordsman cut the red fruit in half and then flew away from the ground at the sudden emergence of roots. The knight landed away from the spot where he was, the spot now with a large root pierced through it, and with drawn sword pointed to his attacker the meta-knights quickly leaped over and assembled behind their leader.

"Guessing you're in a foul mood today." Ax Knight lulled as looked steadfast at the large, brown tree.

"Anger high, anger peaking." Javelin Knight beeped as he floated high above each member.

"Perhaps you should cool down a bit." Mace Knight chuckled as he gripped onto his mace with both hands, preparing either a heavy blow or a swift parry in case of attack.

Too this comment Whispy finally turned round, his eyes bloodshot and falling leaves around him snapped.

"Gah! Thanks a lot Mace, that's just made him angrier." Trident Knight moaned as he flinched at the sight of the enraged guardian, currently less of a guardian and more of an aggressive tank of firepower.

Time froze for the two groups, spotlight shinning squarely on Metaknight and Whispy, who were currently opposites. Metaknight stood still as a statue, calm, patient, waiting whereas Whispy was shivering from his pent up fury that boiled his bark and made the very ground twitch and shake. Their eyes stared only to one another, the warrior saw not a thing sides his opponent and the tree saw nothing but blazing red with black and blurry silhouettes wavering in his line of sight.

"Come!" Metaknight declared, opening his wings up and demanding his attackers next move.

Time for a while slowed as Whispy roared, the wind itself rusted and leaves cascaded the vision of all. The fighters focused themselves, various attacks needing stances to strike and these stances were being moulded. As all shifted in the clearing of the forest the clash began.

"Hi."

The two units halted, as normality returned to the field and the mood of battle was broken. They were ready to attack with the meta-knights charging headlong, Metaknight poised to thrust his Galacta with deadly precision and Whispy who had pulled his head, or rather top half, back to shake out many a variety of fruits, weapons and living creatures from his forage but something caught their attention. Kirby.

"Poyo." Kirby queried, a question mark floating over his tilted head as he wondered what was going on.

The silence broke.

"KIRBY!" Whispy yelled, shaking his body forth and showering a bonanza of red apples at the little fellow. Kirby turned and while anyone else would have saw a collection of painfully large fruit coming their way the ever gluttonous puffball thought of how best to fit it into his stomach. Inhaling was his answer and inhale he did. So Kirby with his ever wonderous powers began to suck up the apple barrage and unfortunately was late in realising the sheer quantity was too much to get in at once. Bopped and bashed, the hero of this story spun off backwards from the impact of the attack.

Hearing the sound of battle, or in truth, the sound of thrown apples smacking into a bouncy pink gumball, Adeline, Dee and Gooey sprinted into the clearing.

"Kirby what's the matt-Kirby are you okay?" Adeline asked as she saw the dazed and bruised hero lying on a pile of apple, and rushed over to him with the others.

"Kirby, you okay dude?" Gooey slurped as he bounded as well too his friend who shook his head and regained composure. Kirby shook his head with a minute smile that grew when he realised that he was currently on top of a pile of mouth-watering red apples.

The three other members of Kirby's team turned to see the sudden attacker of their friend, only to see Whispy with his back turned, gazing into the distance.

For you see Whispy, after attacking Kirby and at the moment the other three arrived, realised he had been distracted momentarily once again and that other foes were in his midst. He had searched quickly and spotted them, no longer in the clearing but running off further into the dark woods. The Meta-Knights had gotten past him.

Whispy slowly turned round, creaking in the stop motion turn, and with his face fully revealed to the group of friends fear shot cold chills down their spines. A twittering, twitching Whispy foamed from the mouth as his widened, blood shot eyes bulged eerily out of his head to an extent where one would think they would leap out from the retina at any moment.

Whispy proceeded to blather incomprehensibly as he foamed even more, his voice raised to ear piercingly high levels.

"W-what?"

"KIRBY!" Whispy bellowed, his voice reaching throughout the forest and making the very earth tremble as the tree stared menacingly at Kirby, who was eating an apple.

Kirby looked back at the enraged Whispy Woods and realised a fight was to ensue. Snack time was over and so Kirby swallowed whole the rest of the apple.

* * *

_**I realise that as I upload this chapter the title may be out of position as per usual but I've been having particular difficulty with it and I just wanted to upload this chapter while I could.**_

**_Anyway I had originally planned the Kirby vs. Whispy Woods fight to be in this chapter but due to the time its taken to do this much and the length of this chapter as it is I thought it can do without. The next chapter will thus be dedicated to the fight and as such will be an easy one for me to write and upload. Expect it to be uploaded late July or August as while I could do the next chapter with ease there is a oneshot I'm writing which needs to be uploaded on a specific date._**

**_Anyway I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I hope the wait was worth it. I'll try not to ever take this long to update a fanfic ever again and as always constructive criticism is appreciated._**


	5. Kirby vs Whispy Woods

**_All of us users, we are all writers right? Well a thing writers happen to have is a vivid imagination so I'd like all you readers to imagine it's not November and is actually either late July or early August. Once you've convinced yourself that I've actually updated at the time I said I would I will feel very happy._**

**_This chapter is fairly long but not nearly as much as the previous chapter and while I feel my ending moments are a tad scruffy I feel I've done an adequate job. Also I have gone back and edited all the previous chapters. Mostly grammar corrections but minor story improvements may also be noticed. Anyway I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter, my first proper fight scene in this fanfic._**

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* * *

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_**Chapter 4: Kirby vs. Whispy Woods! Boss battle in the forest.**_

The battle started suddenly or at least sudden for the bystanders as Kirby leaped up high into the air the moment a twitch of the great oak's cheek was visible. It began with Whispy exhaling a blast of air at Kirby and the apple pile, colliding with only the pile of sweet, red fruits and knocking them up into the air.

Kirby landed as Gooey yelled out "Look out, incoming apples."

The two non-combatants, Adeleine and Dee, ran into the trees to both distance themselves from the battle and to take shelter from the raining pomaceous fruits.

Meanwhile Kirby turned his attention skyward and tossed his cutter blade out at the oncoming delicacies to cut them in half and then slice them into quarters. With the apples sliced into sizable chunks Kirby and Gooey enjoyed a quick snack before returning their attention to an even more infuriated Whispy Woods.

"Stop eating my apples!" Whispy yelled, sending his roots through the grassy soil and cutting off Kirby and Gooey on either side.

To follow this up Whispy shook his head from side to side, rustling his leaves and dropping a couple of bouncing apples down the two sides.

Hopping over one of the apples, Gooey snidely remarked "If you don't want us to eat your apples then stop throwing them at us."

"Fine then, have a carrot instead." Whispy relied, shooting an orange spear pointed carrot out at the blue blob hero who narrowly avoided it.

"Forgot I could do that didn't you." Whispy laughed as he fired some more orange vegetables out at Gooey, and though the beam powered hero dodged the following carrot projectiles his diverted concentration left him unprepared for a dropped apple that bonked him on the head.

Whispy Woods grinned at scoring a hit at last but the grin turned to grimace, a sharp pain came as a metallic bladed boomerang struck him in the side, sticking into his bark. Whispy turned his attention to the speeding and active Kirby, who after tossing his cutter blade into the ferocious tree re-spawned another one and threw it once again.

Whispy Woods huffed and puffed and exhaled a gust of wind out at Kirby, propelling his attack back at him at the same time. Quick on his feet though Kirby hopped into the air, grabbing a nearby branch and swung off of it, jumping over the breath attack. The pink puffball came down close to Whispy Woods, snatching his cutter blade that got caught in Whispy's side and proceeding to slash away at the big boss of Whispy Wood's forest. With a few quick strokes of the cutter blade Kirby jumped into the air, dragging the dagger like boomerang weapon cross his tree opponent and then again whilst falling.

Whispy Woods did not intend on taking this combo attack without a fight and so made his roots shoot out from where Kirby was going to land, knocking him up into the air. The Dreamlander bounced once against the land before regaining ground albeit he was dazed from the unexpected attack which left him vulnerable to further carrot projectile attacks.

But before the deadly vegetable could strike it was zapped out by a yellow beam, Gooey using his beam power to turn the attack to ash. Sliding cross the floor (he has no legs which makes it difficult to run), Gooey approached Whispy rapidly. Defences were raised in the form of a thick tree root barricade and Gooey skidded to a halt but not before shooting a spiral of blue electric beam substance out in an attempt to hit the thick trunked opponent. The roots meant otherwise though the beam did faze the large tree's root defence, and marked an attack point for Kirby who swiftly threw his cutter blade, gashing the roots.

Whispy groaned, a tint of pain inflicted by the bashing of what is a part of his body and so he decided to withdraw the roots into the ground and exhale another gust of wind. This time the attack was intentionally aimed at the ground and whipped up a cloud of dirt.

"Oh no, my eyes, can't see!" Gooey exclaimed as the murky cloud shielded his vision and slight fragments of dirt flung into his bulging eyes.

"Can't see poyo!" Kirby said worryingly as his vision too was frayed slightly by the thin dirt cloud.

Breathing in, and taking some of the air with him, Kirby puffed up and escaped out of the sight corrupting dirt cloud only to be struck by a well timed eggplant.

"Ha! I knew you would try and escape by flying out." Whispy chuckled in both a jolly and sinister fashion, like an evil Father Christmas having just succeeded in stealing all the presents.

"Now you are easy prey for my apples." Whispy once again chuckled in a manner befitting an evil Father Christmas and released various apples from his branches.

With tainted vision Kirby and Gooey could only fumble about in an attempt to avoid the fast rolling fruits smacking into them. But not only were they being hurt by the attacks but they could only blindly swing about in an attempt to stop the attack.

"Gyahh, watch where you throw that!" Gooey yelped as a cutter blade boomerang soared out from the dirt cloud.

"B-but apples..."

Whispy watched the antics in amusement, or at best listened to the antics in amusement. He was stressed out for a bit but this was beginning to make him feel better, a lot better in fact. Taking revenge on his nemesis and relieving stress both at once was a pleasing activity.

"So long as you're stuck in that dirt cloud I've got nothing to wor-hey where is the dirt cloud going?" Whispy Woods abruptly yelled noticing the dirt cloud moving along.

Looking around the firmly rooted tree noticed Dee and Adeleine, who had previously took cover from the battle, fanning away the cloud of dirt and dust with magically materialising fans (which Adeleine had painted).

"H-hey, you two, stop that, stop ruining my attack strategy." Whsipy protested but the waddle dee and painter had already finished, Kirby and Gooey were in sight and seeing once again.

Amongst an apple littered battle field Kirby held a glowing cutter boomerang and held it high above him with his fin like hands, the bladed boomerang weapon glowing brighter and larger. With a slight flick of his hand Kirby tossed the extra large attack forth, and yet the oncoming weapon did not deter Whispy from releasing his roots as a barricade. The attack made contact and was knocked aside by the hefty shield but not without cutting through the top half of the roots.

"M-my roots, my shield too." Whispy cried out as Gooey glowed brightly, his breath held in before exhaling a large triad of yellow beams that resembled fireballs.

The wave beam, with little to prevent its approach hammered into the wooden nose of the plant based nemesis. Flinching from the shock of the high voltage attack, Whispy could only tell by the pain he felt that Kirby had hopped past the broken roots and slashed at him with the cutter boomerang.

Breathing in despite his urge to yell out in pain, Whispy shot out puffs of exhaled breaths that forced the puffball fighter to back off. Whilst backing away though Kirby managed to throw his boomerang, but this was swiftly deflected by an apple. The cutter powered copy cat landed by the beam powered copy cat, both breathing out a sigh, and staring back at a tired and frayed Whispy.

"Thanks Dee, Adewene." Kirby called out to his two friends, waving and smiling.

"Think nothing of it." Adeleine replied with a smile and waving back to her fighting companion.

"Oh yeah, thanks for getting rid of that nasty blind sight guys."

"Hey, in front of you." Dee called back, noticing the oncoming attack of an oversized eggplant.

With the warning Kirby and Gooey noticed the purple vegetable drawing near and swiftly leaped back, out of harm's way. Or so they thought.

"You could at least pay attention to me when we're in the middle of a fight." The tree bellowed, commanding his roots to pierce the ground from both sides.

"Whoa." Both the fighters exclaimed as they leaped back once again from the attack, hoping to land safely but then realising in mid jump that they had leaped either side of the attack and to each other.

With that the two slammed into one another hard, or as hard as the generally soft bodied two could get, and fell to the floor.

"Are you two okay?" Adeleine asked, as she and Dee watched from the sidelines the somewhat humorous collision.

"Oof, ya, I'm a-ok." Gooey mumbled as tiny warp stars whizzed round his head.

"Poyo." Kirby also responded, shaking his head.

It was at this moment, as the two fighters stood up and regained stability that the more observant member of the cast noticed a problem "Oh dear."

"What's the matter Dee?" Adeleine asked the waddle dee that stood beside her, who was currently shaking his head slowly with his hands to his face.

"Kirby, Gooey, where are your abilities?" Dee asked aloud as he pointed towards the duo.

Kirby and Gooey looked towards one another, oblivious to the meaning behind Dee's words at first as their brains processed the new information. Gooey looked at himself, and checked his tongue that was now its normal pure red self rather than shaped like a yellow beam rod, a change that occured for him upon consuming the beam ability. Kirby checked himself as well, rubbing his now hatless head and with his now empty fins.

"No cutter."

"Oh, my beam powers gone."

A silence dawned, Gooey and Kirby with blank stares, Dee still face palmed and Whispy grinning like the most evil Father Christmas of the entire universe.

"Our abilities gone!" The two fighters shouted out loud as Whispy chuckled to himself with mirth and glee.

"What luck, a slight bump and you both lose your powers." Whispy mused before laughing aloud.

The clearing was then filled with laughter, the deep, echoing chuckle of Whispy boomed from his open mouth and whirled round the clearing, weaving little through the trees. The laughter tickled the ears of all within the clearing, the ominous chuckle that called for a turnaround that signalled a defeat for our heroes. Whispy Woods now had the upper hand in this fight.

"Esuse me." Kirby said cheeringly with his hands cupped together.

"Yeah, sorry but we'll have to go for a bit to find another ability," Gooey slurred as he attempted a slight bow "do you mind?"

"Oh, why of course." The big oak chuckled in his feverous happiness.

"Bai, bai" Kirby called waving slightly as he and Gooey sped off into the woods, a joyous mood encompassing all.

"Take your time now." The Kirby boss called back, still chronically laughing at his good fortune and carrying on with such laughter.

Whispy Woods laughed and chuckled and giggled and held his esteem in merriment until a realisation struck like lightning. He became still, his mind and body frozen with shocking horror and a denial of his own stupidity and foolishness. But he had to face the fact and he did so screaming.

"Wait! Don't run away, come back here!"

No matter how much the lord of the forest yelled he got no reply. When wind blew he tried to hear a voice, one of theirs, confirming they would return, that they would fight. But no, Whispy Woods was without an opponent.

Seeing his sadness, Dee, a sympathetic figure to those who are ignored, waddled over to the large tree and offered him some fresh tea. Whispy Woods said not a word as he raised the Japanese styled cup to his lips by raising a single root out of the ground and sipped.

"Oh, this is rather pleasant." Whispy stated as the soothingly hot beverage slid down his throat.

"I'm glad you like it, I painted all the necessary tools a few moments ago and it doesn't take long for the tea to brew." Adeleine explained, pausing to say this before sipping her own green tea.

"Oh yes, it is very relaxing. Green tea does indeed have such a calming effect." The tree mused as once again he sipped more of the drink, though for a normal person his drinks were giant gulps that finished the concoction in seconds.

There, amongst the flittering leaves that danced on gentle breezes, amid the clearing where battle was once raging, a painter, a servant and a tree sat down for tea. Thoughts of violence were pushed aside until an idea struck, or more so a memory came back to a certain big boss.

"This tea is certainly good and all but weren't you two the ones who created those paper fans from earlier?" Whispy asked, still in a relaxed and enlightened mood made the question sound passive and brief.

"Yeah." Adeleine said, her mouth moving before her mind could remind her of the consequences as she too had gotten used to the soothing atmosphere that currently bathed the trio.

"So you generated the fans' that blew away my brilliant dust cloud plan?" Whispy asked though this time it sounded more like a statement, a confirmation of a theory.

Dee and Adeleine were silent, realising the trouble that was about to brew. The once gentle vibe that offered happiness for all was turning gloomy and fierce, dashes of purple and red signifying the dark and the anger. The tea cups were set down as Whispy began to breathe in and the duo attempted to flee but were too late. Whispy breathed out, puffs of air buffeting the two friends away and smacking them into trees on the far side where they tumbled together.

"I see your plan now, you were using that green tea to distract me and then Kirby and his blue pal would jump out and run through the gate. Am I right? I' am right!" Babbled the great oak as his eyes resumed an angry glare and his evil Father Christmas chuckle was returning.

"No, of course not, we'd never do something like that!" Dee yelled in panic and protest, the menacing stare causing him to rapidly sweat with fear.

"Yeah, I mean, you saw Kirby and Gooey. They lost their powers, what good would an ambush do?" Adeleine joined in with Dee's protests as still the tree looked with pure hatred.

Whispy did not speak at first just stared. The boss stared with malice so strong that the two friends and victim of such atmosphere felt as if their breath was running out, as if the air itself was being stolen away. An eye twitched. Lips moved and words came out.

"Regardless, you foiled my earlier strategy. I don't want you to be further nuisances when the two heroes return to be obliterated. Prepare!"

Upon those dooming words Whispy Woods huffed and puffed once again, breathing in all the hot air that recently blew from his head. On this occasion the beginning boss took his time, as if he was savouring each gulp of air he stored in his cheeks, and in return this gave our non-fighting now forced to fight combatants a chance to run out of the way. The tree exhaled and a gale whipped forth, breaking through the trees like lighting striking, and the force whipped up the two light weights into the air.

Despite the rough fall to the ground the duo wasted no time in scrambling to their feet and away as apples fell forth to strike them. Fruit bombarded the ground and each time one fell Dee and Adeleine only narrowly dodged.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Dee cried out as he zigzagged a literal fruit salad combination.

"I don't know," Adeleine cried in response and she followed beside Dee in their narrow avoidance, but then a light bulb popped above her head, shining brightly "I've got it!"

The human and waddling creature continued to run, bounding past apple after apple, while trying to communicate a plan "You have a plan then?"

"Yeah, but I need to set up." Adeleine yelled out to her companion as she began to speed up, dashing now to the side and aiming for the shelter of the trees.

Whispy was no fool though, despite being foolish and easy to trick, and could tell what they aiming for. Believing they were vying for an escape he rose his roots out from the ground and began to boarder off the rest of the woodland. This didn't seem to deter Adeleine at all nor Dee although he was simply following the painter at this point. Sprinting off as close to the roots as they could the leader of the run thus spun round, away from their attacker and began running as far away from him as possible.

"What in Dreamland are you trying to do?" Whispy asked aloud though murmured more to himself that to anyone in particular.

The apple tree continued to toss his luscious fruit at the foes, each missing apple missing by mere hairs, hairs that gradually grew longer as the duo ran besides the circular clearing.

"Oh I get it," Dee exclaimed "you're trying to find the spot he's unable to reach with his apples."

"Yeah, but," Adeleine said between breaths of air "It won't stop him from attacking altogether, and I need time to paint something."

As the painter said this she turned her face to her running partner, believing it to be safe enough to turn her attention away from the single idea of 'flee'. Waddle Dee, being trained to be observant, caught the hint in the young girls eyes and began to profuse sweat more so than when Whispy Woods was threatening him.

"You-you want me to be the bait don't you."

Adeleine cupped her hands together and with an apologetic expression upon her face said "Please."

Dee quickly weighed his options, which as of the present moment was die in a blaze of glory or run till they were exhausted and then die. Not much of a choice really.

"H-here I go" Dee murmured as he suddenly split off from Adeleine and ran for the centre of the clearing.

Whispy Woods, as of present, was realising he was having difficulty in striking them with apples when they were so distant. He couldn't toss them all the way to the boarder of the clearing and they were easily outrunning the apples which rolled. He had considered his alternative attacks of carrots and eggplants but they were also pretty inaccurate. As Whispy thought about it most of his attacks had a poor hit rate.

Whispy was beginning to muse over a possible strategy when he was rudely interuppted by an annoying squeaky voice. The voice was yelling "come get me, come get me" and so Whispy Woods decided to grant the person's request. Whispy shifted his body and aimed at Dee, focusing all his attacks on him.

"It will be rewarding just to see one of you perish!" The tree yelled as he swivelled his head shaking apple after apple, all of which began to tumble towards the poor lone waddle dee.

Dee looked before him to see nothing but apples, wave after wave of red bunches, speeding towards him.

"Today is just not my day." Dee sighed, a look of gloom coming from his face.

The first few apples came sparsely and Dee nipped to the side of the only one close to hitting him. But as soon as he dodged another apple bounded along and he had to bend aside to avoid the red fruit of death. The trouble was not over yet though as another and another came, Dee dodging each one by what he considered miracles.

"Woah!" Dee yelled out as he leaped above the next apple and landed atop one the rolling fruits.

Quick as he could he began to move, keeping him on board the fruit.

"_I'm safe like this, surely_." Dee thought to himself as his momentarily happiness expressed itself through a gentle jog.

The gentle jog ended as soon as it started, the typically servant creature hopping off the seeded fruit as carrot projectiles shot from Whispy Woods mouth, aimed at him.

"_I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die_." Dee moaned internally as he leaped and bounded from apple to apple, flipping over each speeding vegetable that came his way.

This proceeded for a short while and on any other day the impressive acrobatics would have went on for longer but as of now a certain tree was rather impatient.

"Enough of this!" Whispy roared as he inhaled and exhaled a large breath attack once again, billowing into the waddle dee and all his apples causing them to cascade into the air.

Dee sailed roughly through the raging torrents of the sky, before docking abruptly when he crashed into the floor. More than a bit groggy, the very idea that a horde of apples was hailing down on him never came to mind. Luckily for the dazed bait he had a companion, a companion who had finished up her painting and was able to quickly hoist Dee out of harm's way.

"Are you alright?" Dee faintly heard as all tossed and turned about his head, his sights were of things reflected in water.

"Dee, please tell me you're okay. Dee." Adeleine called out to her friend, hoping for some response, any response.

A response did come as Dee blinked and swayed about in her arms. Adeleine was about to welcome her waddle dee back into consciousness but the first thing the little guy did was to jump unsteadily to his feet and salute.

"R-reporting for duty sir." The sailor slurred and considering his present movements' one would even go so far as to describe him as a drunken sailor.

Such a thought appeared to have occurred in Adeleine's mind as well for she soon had a cheery grin spread across her face, a failing attempt to stop herself from laughing. Dee staggered forth and back, his head slowly recuperating from the sudden blast of wind that launched him into the air.

"A-Adeleine, do I have to distract him anymore?" Dee asked as the world returned to its normality.

"Not anymore, I've just finished." Adeleine proclaimed as she pointed over to her nearby canvas.

"Well what do you know you're together again," Whispy Woods commented as he looked at his two targets lined squarely in his sights "Now I'll skewer you together."

As Whispy Woods snickered to himself, preparing to fire his spear headed carrots at the two, Adeleine waved her paintbrush over her canvas and a faint coloured light shone. In an instant a large cannon roughly the size of Whispy Woods himself materialised, pre-lit. The carrots drooped out of the great tree's mouth.

Dee stared wide eyed at the cannon as the creator of the weapon commented "Well, it's a little bigger than I expected."

"A little! When that thing fire's it will wipe out the whole of Dark woods."

Whipsy Woods didn't need anyone to confirm this, he already knew. Just a hunch on his part as he stared down the tunnel of the cannon, the iron ball of destruction waiting to be launched. Panic took over Whispy Woods as his mind became a mess, his attempts to think of an idea all falling apart.

"Please, put it out, put it out!" Whispy Woods cried as the lick of the cannon burned away.

"I'm sorry but I can't. The lick has been burnt to the point where I can't reach it." The painter explained, raising her arms as high as they could go to prove the point.

The lick burned away as the fire greedily chowed it's way to the cannon and Whispy's life seemed to be nearing its end. The cannon would soon fire and he would be reduced to chip wood.

"Stop!" Whispy yelled, withdrawing all his surrounding roots and propelling them under the front of the cannon.

The impact forced the tip of the cannon upwards slightly and then it fired. The large iron bullet passed by Whispy's head and soared into the sky, ascending onwards and onwards. Eventually though it began to descend into Dark woods and the whole of dreamland could tell when it landed. The ground trembled as a massive tremor passed through the forest and the sound was strong enough to life people off their feet.

Dee sighed "Well at least the woods are saved."

Adeleine was not as content as Dee, perhaps because her focus had been on the boss they were facing.

"Yeah, that's good and all but what are we going to do about him?" The human said as she pointed over to a rather solemn Whispy.

Whispy's eyes stared only at the floor, his nose lowered and his breathing erratic. Under each breath he nattered away thanks for his life but also curses upon his foes. His mind, recently fraught with fear had suddenly calmed and his recent anger, which had came out as billowing flames had turned to still chilling ice.

"I don't know why but I have a bad feeling about him." Dee observed as Whispy finished his rapid exhales of silent air.

With his head still lowered but a raised voice Whispy hollered "You who dare show me fear and despair shall now enter the same world of terror."

Whispy raised his face, but not one he had before. His once ovule eyes had hollowed into sharp edged triangles. His circular mouth that he went about with was replaced with a sharp fanged gateway to his stomach and his now drill nose's tip gleamed. One by one each of the mighty tree's roots tore out of the surface, and gripped the grass and dirt. Slowly the large tree heaved himself off the ground with his roots as if he were a giant wooded spider, and looked down upon the non-combatants.

"Were doomed." Dee murmured as Whispy's stood over them, tall and menacing.

"H-he just looks scary, we can't just jump to conclusions based on appearance" Adeleine reassured her comrade although it was also her attempt at reassuring herself.

Whispy attempted to move forward, attempted to reach the live prey but the gigantic cannon blocked the tree's path. A root grabbed the underside of the cannon and then another root pushed and another and another till they lifted the cannon into the air. With a might heave Whispy tossed the weapon into the air, fractures visible on it from where the roots forced it up. Then as the cannon descended froms it's short flight the tree spun round it's body, batting the coal coloured iron weapon away with his nose, damaging the cannon further and getting it a relative distand away from the clearing. As the crumbing artwork crushed the nearby path of trees, reassurance went with it.

His eyes resumed focus on his prey. Each root took it's turn to take a step and slowly Whispy began to approach the two, walking with his roots acting as legs.

"Q-quick, paint something, anything." Dee shouted as Adeleine grasped her paintbrush with shaking hands and began to paint a quick and simple picture.

Waving her paintbrush like a wand the palette shot a few measily fireballs that brushed off against the enraged bark of Whispy Woods.

"Why, why didn't that work?" Dee yelled in surprise and dread.

"My paintings that come to life, the better their painted the more they resemble the real thing."

"Then paint something better then."

"I can't. I don't have time."

Correct in saying this the duo were backed against a small rooted tree, with a walking talking and furious tree so close that his breath could be felt against their skin. Whispy's mouth gnashed together as he continually opened and closed, sap dripping on the fangs like saliva. As the creature whose eyes seemed like vortexes swallowing all light came ever closer Adeleine and Dee cuddled up in fear.

"Hi."

That word, or rather the voice that said the word came as a ray of hope for the two whose lives were in danger. Even in his absolute peek of anger Whispy still halted, shifting his face and body to the direction of the voice.

"Sorry it took so long, we got a bit lost." Another voice said, this one slurred and deep unlike the soft and high pitched one of earlier.

"Kirby! Gooey!" Adeleine cried out as her two friends stood battle ready.

"Guys!" Dee exclaimed with pure joy at the emergence of their friends, ready to save them.

"Prepare youself Whispy Woods for the power of...Bubble!" Gooey excalimed exstatically, his wide open mouth revealing his pale blue tongue with what looked to be berries sprouting out on the end.

"Clean!" Kirby proudly stated, a broom tucked hunder his fin and a yellow Kerchief wrapped round his forehead/upper most part of his body.

Adeleine and Dee immediately collapsed, a sudden sense of gloom causing them to fall. Their hopes of being rescued were dashed upon hearing the selected powers of their saviours.

"Bubble and Clean...the worst two powers ever!" Dee moaned aloud, tears threatening to roll down his face.

"Don't fret friends. These powers maybe weak but they're more than enough to take on a weakling like Whi-Oh dear gosh he's in full power mode we are all goners'."

Whispy had stood still for long enough, his mind ignorant to most of the conversation. The only thing that changed in his mind was the target. He could care less about the other two but Kirby was his prime target, the one he was truely after. The teeth of Whispy Woods began to gnash once again as the tree snickered with sinister intent and began to charge towards Kirby.

"Uh oh." Kirby gasped as he and Gooey swiftly rolled away from the large tree's crawling charge, a surprisingly fast charge considering the movement required of each individual root.

Kirby and Gooey had rolled to opposite sides, Gooey to his left and Kirby to his right, stepping further into the clearing. The enraged Whispy naturally ignored Gooey and went immediately after Kirby with another charge. The little hero ran away from his pursuer, being somewhat faster than the tree. Whispy couldn't keep up with Kirby but it doesn't mean he couldn't attack; when nearing the hero of dreamland Whispy shot out bruised and rotten apples and carrots in an attempt to hit his swift foe.

Kirby jumped aside, avoiding the first one and the following one as well, but not expecting the swift turn by Whispy Kirby didn't avoid the third. Pushing Kirby face down on the floor Whispy proceeded to shoot another rotten vegetable/fruit only for a blue bubble to strike and converge on the attack. The attack floated within the bubble and drifted away.

"How'd you like that? The bubble can intercept any of your attacks," Gooey proudly claimed "You might as well give it up Whispy; we already know all your moves."

As Gooey taunted his opponent Whispy raised a few roots on one side of his body and used the other roots to grasp the earth firmly. Then he pivoted from the gripped point the roots were imbedded into and using the raised roots performed what could be described as a multi-legged spin kick, which went right by the blue blob, who had just ducked at the last second.

"Okay, that one's new."

In this time Kirby had returned to fight, sweeping the floor using his broom to whip up heaps of dust and proceeding to strike the tree with it. In all sense, Kirby was using dust to attack a hollow eyed tree so any effect at all would be unexpected, but, being dust whipped up from a magical broom it hurt more than you'd think. Whispy seemed to agree, as what felt like a sharp clawed animal scratching at his side was in fact Clean Kirby brushing dust into him.

Kirby was too close for Whispy Woods to use his vegetables, after all the clean abilities sweep attack was a close range attack, and so re-continued his charge by raising his roots. The slow lifting of the roots was the signal Kirby needed to stop his assault and begin running once again. Each root tore through the earth and tugged against the ground, pulling the tree towards his foe. But Kirby was small and light, fast on his feet when the need arises and was able to still outmanoeuvre Whispy Woods no matter how fast the boss tried to move. Once again the tree took to the tactic of firing rotten produce, only for Gooey to intervene with his bubble beam. Bubble shots forth from the dark matter's tongue, nullifying the usefulness of all the attacks. Now the duo fled together, Gooey defending Kirby as best he could while sliding backwards (yet again a lack of feet made the concept of the human term running invalid).

Whispy began to slow, the movement of all his roots alternatively and the raising of his heavy body having warn him out. He halted, his roots wearingly placing him back onto the ground and the tree panted out of exhaustion.

"Alright here's my chance, Big Bubble!" Gooey yelled upon noticing the exhausted Whispy Woods and began charging up the Bubble powers lone hurting attack.

From the sidelines Dee and Adeleine watched as Gooey prepared the finishing blow on the opponent. However being on the sidelines and out of the heat of battle meant they could spot things that would otherwise have been missed. Such as when a tired foe, rather than breathing for air, had his mouth closed and expanding.

"Gooey stop your attack he's faking it!" Dee yelled out but a moment too late.

Whispy Woods exhaled several dimly coloured produce, moulding vegetable and dried fruit, all at once at Gooey. Gooey released his big bubble but the attack came too close to prevent harm from being done and though Gooey's attack pushed back a few, the sheer quantity of Whispy's attack ended up slamming into Gooey.

Whispy, though currently out of his mind, sneered as his vegetable and fruit crushed the gelatinous thing that stood against him. Now with one foe under a pile of supermarket purchases there was one more to g-wait, where did he go?

Whispy's sharp, pointed burrows looked round the clearing but Kirby wasn't in sight. The tree spun round several times, trying to detect the pink hero but to no avail. Whispy may have never have known where Kirby was if it wasn't for a slight breeze, air rustling against the thistles of Kirby's broom.

Whispy heard and immediately turned his attention skyward to see a rather determined looking Kirby standing upon his flying broom. Whispy reacted at once by firing a vegetable out at Kirby, who swivelled to the side. More vegetables and fruit came and as such Kirby steered the broom round and sped off. The sweep broom sent the hero rocketing forward, away from the rapid shooting tree.

Meanwhile, whilst Kirby entertained the guardian of the forest, Dee and Adeleine began removing the baffled and shaken Gooey from the heap of greens (despite it consisting of not a signle green vegetable or fruit).

Whispy halted his attempts to attack, Kirby having flown a distance where he could not reach with projectiles, and as such, hell-bent on revenge, the tree waited. Stood waiting, eyes narrowed only on the cloudy sky, waiting for the pink dot in the distance to turn round. Eventually after Kirby remembered how to properly steer the magic clean broom, the dot in the distant turned in the air.

A sneer came across the hungry foe, eager to finish off this drawn out battle. Kirby faced Whispy Woods as he released his grip of the broom and balancing on the fast travelling object with his feet alone. Whispy fired carrots, apples, and something long since unidentifiable frantically at the speeding opponent but the undeterred Kirby rode the waves of air like a surfer, dodging the attacks as they came. Soon, what were loops and turns turned into a head on dive, and as Kirby neared his first boss the little hero leaped from his broom.

A grin turned into grimace as the unmanned broom sped on into Whispy striking him above the eyes and imbedding itself into the enraged tree's head.

"Gah, gyaah!" Whispy unintelligibly yelled in pain as his roots clumsily flung his body backwards, threatening to tip him over onto his back.

As Kirby dropped onto the floor, landing on his feet, it seemed his strategy was futile. Whispy managed to regain his balance and did not seem to be too effected by the broom still imbedded in his forehead (or what would be considered his forehead). Furthermore with the broom stuck in the tree's head Kirby had forfeited his ability in the daring attack.

Whispy Woods, assured of victory, went in to finish off his smirking foe. Kirby's smirk opened up as he spun round inhaling as many of the fruit and vegetable that had been thrown about by Whispy Woods during the battle and contained them in his mouth. Whispy's Woods grin turned into grimace once again as the little puffball exhaled a bonanza of produce out at Whispy. The attack hit and the force pushed the great tree backwards, and with such force the attack lifted him and his roots off the ground before eventually falling down to the ground on his back.

Whispy Woods lay amidst a pile of the very attacks he fired, unconscious.

"Kirby win poyo!" Kirby cheered as spun round to see his friends' faces before performing his classic victory dance, jumping from side to side in bliss and spinning round and round in cheer.

A round of applause broke out as Adeleine and Dee clapped to their friend, "Good job Kirby."

"That was excellent Kirby-sam-I mean Kirby."

Kirby's blush reddened slightly as he rubbed the back of his head with a wide grin.

"Hey, hey, what about me?" Gooey protested, feeling left out with the praise.

"Oh yeah, good job to you too Gooey." Adeleine said upon remembering Gooey's efforts.

"It certainly was wasn't it, me and Kirby here took down that log pile no problem. A shame we lost our powers; it took us ages to find them."

"I've been meaning to ask," Dee began looking over at Gooey with a quizzical expression "Considering you were gone for so long why did you come back with such weak powers?"

"Hey no need to be so critical, I could ask you why you and Adeleine were embracing one another when we returned?" Dee responded, a question to a question.

Dee paused, words originally planned to come out from his non-existand mouth stopped and he and Adeleine simply looked to one another, blushing.

"I-it wasn't like that at all."

"Y-yeah, we though we going to perish till you guys arrived."

"So you wanted to perish in one anothers arms." Gooey added, enjoying his well timed teasing.

"Yes-I mean no-I mean... stop confusing me."

Gooey simply burst out laughing as the protesting two blushes' deepened. Meanwhile Kirby stood beside them, oblivious to the entire conversation, but decided it must be something funny and went along with Gooey in merriment.

* * *

Professor Iru and his assistant, the poppy bros Jr. Girl Ume, stood before two things. The first was a crowd of war painted croucars wielding weapons bowing before them. The second was a large cannonball that had caused a crater upon the once hilled purple field.

"Please don't harm us oh mighty wizard." The croucars cried.

* * *

**_I had a bit of trouble with font size for some reason when writing on the site so there may be one or two problems._**

**_I had a fun time writing this chapter mostly because of the hilarity of Whispy Woods character. I love the antics I can make up with a strong and intelligent yet foolish villain. I admittedly had trouble trying to make the fight seem intense and trying to make Whispy Woods seem threatening. His basic attacks are puffs of air and apples after all. Apples!_**

**_I also tried working in some hints of a pairing, without making it assured. I have a certain fondness of DeexAdeleine, particularly after reading a fantastic fanfic with this pairing (I would say the name of the fanfic but I'm not sure I'm allowed to advertise other peoples fanfics within my own fanfic without permission), although it can never beat my favourite pairing of KirbyxRibbon._**

**_As for the last scene you can make guesses at what happened but more on it will be expanded upon in the next chapter, which, despite A2 courses and History personal study drafts, I will have out on new year's day. I don't think I'll be able to get two out like I planned but my personal goal is to at least get the next chapter written and uploaded on new year's day._**

**_Well I hope you've enjoyed chapter 4 of Kirby's Ancient Ruin Adventure._**


	6. Purple Plants!

_**I feel I have done better chapters than this one but I wouldn't upload it if I wasn't satisfied with it. I feel I could have been more descriptive and make the scenes flow better, it also feels a tad short but you know what, I'm uploading this on time. I've read through it and it's good and I hope you agree, not amazing, but good enough to pass my examination.**_

_**Originally I had almost no focus on the dark woods and was simply eager to go onto the ruins but I've decided that the forest needs some attention paid to it. I am proud to be able to upload this chapter on time and I also plan the same for the next chapter, a chapter I have formulated onto paper already. Anyway I wish you all a happy new year and I hope you enjoy the chapter.**_

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_**Chapter 5: Purple Plants! Journey through Dark Woods!**_

In order to learn about all of the exploits of the various groups it is necessary to go back a bit, go back in time to the moment when Kirby was just about to face off with Whispy Woods and when all of the other three groups had made their way into the dark woods.

The first of these groups consisted of two individuals, Professor Iru and his assistant Ume. The two, having been running a good distance away from the gate and where Whispy Woods was planted, stopped out of exhaustion.

"O-okay my dear...this should be far enough...we can stop...running." Iru stated amidst large gulps of air.

"Y...yes sir." Ume replied as she lay on her back sprawled across the wild purple grass.

Iru stopped panting, or at least as much as his aged lungs had been, and looked around, observing his surroundings. The green environment prior to entering had morphed completely; replacing greenery was purple-ry. Untamed and unattended purple grass shot out from the pale chalky dirt. The plants, though their stems were green, blossomed in purple arrays and small purple lights floated in the air, mixing with the numerous flutters. The thin purple tree's surrounding the area had the common green forage but the larger tree's had, once again, purple in its colour scheme with a uniquely coloured forage.

"Sir, can you hear a river?" Ume asked as her ears heard the gentle lolls of flowing water.

"The river...of Green greens probably flows through the forest and then through here," The professor explained as he regained his breath, now correcting his posture "It doesn't sound far."

The elderly croucar began trotting in the direction of running water, moving ahead only a few steps before turning to his assistant and inclining his head onwards. Ume got up in haste, despite her spent energy, and followed her senior.

The bushes that professor pushed aside were strangely green or rather normal in comparison to the surrounding plant life. Around the edges, closest to the trees were green tufts of grass and Iru upon seeing this he went down to inspect quickly.

"Everything else is purple here," The professor said as he stooped down to the grass basked in the tree's shade "except for the grass under the tree's. Shouldn't it be less green, I can't imagine it receiving much sunlight or water from here?"

Never the less the wise bird decided, as he contemplated his starch throat, to head for the sound of water once more and to look into the research later. With some unease Iru placed the large book of his dear friend in a pouch tied to his back and began to flap his wings. Taking off only a wee bit off the ground he flew over the hedges and rows of plants. Meanwhile Ume trudged behind, taking her time pushing back the various obstacles and manoeuvring around them. Shortly, the sight of a reflective blue lake came into view, running down a small slope and weaving through the trees.

"Hmm, a lot smaller than the lake of Green greens, to be expected I guess." Iru thought to himself as he slowed the consistent movement of wings and gracefully descended, falling over face first.

Grumbling, he pushed himself up off the floor, wiping the dirt off his face with his wing, and just in time as Ume came hopping through the bushes. Ume just looked on at the professor as he turned round to greet her.

"Did you just fall over professor?"

"O-of course not, I'm perfectly fink and spam."

Iru, hiding his embarrassment, turned his eyes to the lake which struggled to move onwards, tree's disrupting its flow and causing such straightforward water to twist and bend in its path. Despite the river, flowing eon after eon, the banks remained firm though narrow and slight, the clay coloured surface barely weathered to the point of revealing a creamy brown layer of earth.

Ume on the other hand had heard the small pitter-patter of soft, delicate wings and turned her attention to the green sky of tree's, witnessing small butterflies fluttering. As they would do so anywhere else, the harmless creatures drifted along an unfelt breeze, a charming tune emanating from their innocence.

"So the flutters here are orange?" Ume queried aloud, and unaware but only to herself as her senior trotted over to the river, inspecting the dirt.

The tip of his wing lowered and pecked at the bank, scraping only a few fragments of dirt from the hardened surface. The croucar stared at his spoils, brown and purple specks of earth, native only to this forest (as remembering the place is only called Dark Woods because it sounds better than Dark Forest). A smirk formed on his face as he pushed around the minerals his wing.

"The earth here is harder, has been mostly unaffected by weathering and comes in numerous colours. Oh, Takahiro must have been having the time of his life studying all this." Iru mused, before letting the dirt slip from his feathers.

"Ume-san, we're heading onwards." The professor stated.

"Yes professor!"

* * *

The tree's had long since fought over territory and their war appeared to be everlasting as the roots struggled to secure a space in the earth. Though thin and wavy, a curved pattern to the tree's stature, their purple roots dug fiercely through the earth, wherever it could be found. Unlike in Whispy Wood's Forest, where the path's lay clear with the odd leaf bristling, here the path's were nowhere to be seen, hidden by vines and weeds, monstrous bushes and thorns galore. The roots, sprouted out of the ground like tripwire.

Animals cawed and roared as the wildlife moved busily, savagely. The area was truly bizarre for the duo; an untamed land was where they were venturing.

"T-this is pretty scary professor." Ume murmured worryingly as her eyes darted to and fro, the whisperings of the wind calling like a ghost.

The aged croucar turned his attention to his assistant to calm her "now, now, you knew this was going to be a lot different than Whispy Woods forest."

"I know but still..." Ume said stumbling over a root but managing to push against two close by tree's and secure her balance.

"Watch yourself dear."

The bomb tossing citizen of Dreamland said not a word but nodded with a hum. Too put her mind at ease from the constant rustling and more hostile environment she began to hum. A soft and sweet tune, and quiet as to not attract attention.

"Hmm," Iru hummed as well but one with no tune as he spotted a slight clearing between groups of plants and fungus "is that...tilled ground?"

Iru who pondered it, began to trek with even more care whilst Ume simply skipped over to the unearthed patch of ground, a comfort to not be so concerned of where she put one foot and the next. Ume wondered off to the centre, happily humming, whilst Iru's eyes were downwards alone and his thoughts directed at the tilled earth.

"_Looks like there are at least some civilised people, maybe they can help us out..." The red crow said in his head._

"_Dear, it's apperent that civilised people live in these woods we should-watch out!" _The Croucar halted his conversationwhen he noticed something in the distance and immediately stepped forth and pulled Ume out of the way as a purplish-red foe flew down, swiping at the spot where the bomber once stood. The attacker did not continue to fly but instead landed from parallel his arrival. The two turned to face the surprise attacker, a young face painted croucar with a spear strapped to his back who hopped back out of the distance of the two.

"A-a croucar?" Iru stuttered as he looked over at the similar raced bird.

They were clearly of the same race but due to age and environment Iru and the younger, wilder croucar bore little resemblance elsewhere. At first the fiercer crow did not speak, just look with a frown and a scowl upon is face but his words soon came.

"Old croucar, why does thou help the enemy perot?" The younger croucar asked his voice bold and lacking grace.

"O-old croucar? Why you insolent brat I demand that you at least give me a horonofic?" Iru snapped back at once, infuriated at what he would term this youths rudeness.

The spear wielding croucar did not budge, nor show any signs of reaction, his heart as still as the wooden whistle hanging by his chest. Slowly he withdrew the spear round his back and wedged it into the ground, its tip gleaming as the slightest glimpse of sunlight shone upon it. With his other wing the croucar took hold of the whistle and blew a slight melodic beat, but for just a second. Then came the calm. Then came the numerous croucars.

"..." The professor tried to speak but no words came from his beak. He was a rare bird, a croucar, with few residing in Dreamland and yet now he was surrounded by them. To him the whispers were non-existent; words were unheard as he looked round in amazement at the assembly of a war painted flock.

"Who's the old croucar?"

"Never seen him before, an escapee of another tribe?"

"Is that a perot with him?"

"Why is he with a perot, our enemy?"

"Doesn't she look a bit different from the others?"

Ume on the other hand was less fazed by the sudden emergence of a croucar tribe and was more interested in the constant talk of perots which seemed to be aimed at her.

"Umm, excuse me but...what's a perot?" The yellow hooded girl asked, drawing the attention of the circling natives to her.

"T-the Perot spoke, she'll be cursin every one of ye, silence witch lest ye tongue be slit." A voice resounded, that from the first croucar, the one who had tried to attack Ume beforehand.

Ume immediately went silent, Iru placing a wing in front of her as a flimsy means of cover, the croucars meanwhile cheered the words of their leader. Iru was hesitant to speak as he weighed his options, he looked round at the strong and agile birds of prey and went to think some more; his words would have to be chosen carefully.

"Native croucars! I do not wish to cause harm nor intend to, me and my assistant here are simply passing through-"Why have you aligned yourself with the perot you old fool?" Iru was interrupted by the croucars with the same question as he was asked earlier though phrased differently.

"Pray do tell, who or what are the Perots?" Iru asked, politely and restraining any anger over the rude manners of the ruffians surrounding him.

"You be senile alas for their behind thy noble guard stands one."

It was at this point, a response rather than a thought out manoeuvre, that Ume poked her head over her teacher's wing and decided to clarify "um, I'm a poppy bros, not a perot."

The flock seemed startled, and the more cowardly stepped back but even in the strong was a slight tremor of fear.

"You are the first to speak with no giggle nor rhymes, and to nother but ye men of thy kind. Thus your words clearly be a curse upon the clan of flying black birds." The leader said without hesitation though his wing shot to his weapon, ready to grasp and wield if needed.

After a whispered scolding Iru kept his stare upon the leader and continued to speak "I assure you my assistant is not one of these perot beings you speak of, and even if she was I assure you she will do no harm to you or your people."

The leader was to say more but hesitated to speak and murmured in his head alone "_She be different for no moon of skin nor tongue lay bare about her... maybe truth be in old croucar before._"

The leaders silence became a group silence. The youthful man riveting with primitive strength but a keen eye stared back at the aged man long since lost his vigour of strength but overflowing with an active mind of turning gears and cogs. Then the leader raised a wing, a lone wing, and five other croucars disembarked from the encirclement and huddled with their leader. They bonked heads closely as they made a small circle and began to discuss.

* * *

"You're all useless, useless I say. Why on Popstar did you leave my sedan chair behind?" Dedede groaned as he trudged through narrow paths, barely squeezing through the tight corners.

"W-we're very sorry no kimi." The group apologised attempting to bow in movement.

They knew that it was actually the King's fault that the sedan chair was left behind but they also knew that it was better not to argue with the currently irked off penguin with a hammer twice the size of them. The bloated king continued to trudge along, whining when he got pricked by the numerous thorns, and moaning at the strength he was exhausting pushing aside firm standing tree's. The distorted path often became too narrow for a body build of Dedede's type and so he suffered these encounters frequently. The waddle dee's and doo's tagging behind also suffered as tree branches swung back at them. The King however was not at the front of the group; rather it was the invincible Gordo who stayed in front, ready to alert the King when something approached.

"My lord, there is a treeless area through here." The gordo said as he shifted his weight to the left, indicating a gap which lead to a slight area of space.

"About time, let me through." The king commanded, the gordo floating up a notch to allow the heavy weight to barge his way into the miniature field of plants.

The area was small, cramped and dark, light as miniscule as every other area of the forest, and while the trees broke away and the thorns did not interfere where they were the flowers thrived lively. An area with little light and little water, the purple and blue tinted flowers were strong, commendable for not being crushed to death even under the King's weight. The men all followed their dissatisfied villainous leader into the spot, where more complaining ensued.

"You know what; it's too dark in here as well, like everywhere else, light it up already would ya." Dedede commanded as he stared up at the sky, hidden away by far reaching tree leaves of deepest green.

A lone waddle doo stepped forward and charged a small spectre of a beam in his lone eye, making his pupil act like a flashlight. The light was small and weak but effective, if not in making everything more visible, in startling the nearby Poison Mash. Like a Cappy, the Poison Mash was a mushroom creature but withered and dull, its colour scheme consisting of grey.

"What the he-the King began to say before the panicked citizen of the woods threw its blue cap at the group, easily knocked aside by a hammer "Don't you dare interrupt the great and almighty King Dedede!"

The toxic mushroom tried to run, flailing its arms in fear but the vengeful penguin swung his hammer like a golf club and blew the Poison Mash away. Further misfortune befell the King's entre when the Poison Mash collided with a small gang of bug like birds. The dopey beaked insects turned to see what enemy had launched another enemy at them and upon sighting the King's group they flew forth.

"Koozer's attack!" They yelled as they flew towards the King.

"So many of you dare raise a hand against your King!" King Dedede yelled as he grasped his hammer with both wings and a malicious grin formed upon his face.

The Dee's and Doo's moaned at this sudden attack while the Gordo simply thought upon the bizarre creatures they were encountering "why on popstar would anyone want to come here, I mean no one could like this place?"

* * *

Meta Knight swung his golden sword, parrying a tossed boomerang, and then leaped forth to stab its wielder. Then two clown like beings with faces like mimes tossed bombs out from their personal pocket spaces but the knight twirled round, spinning with such ferocity he turned into a tornado. The tornado blew away the two bombs to the side and as they blew up the blue sword wielding man halted his mach tornado, ran towards the two Perots and whipped his sword through the air. Meta Knight placed his sword back into its sheath as the two Perots fell to the floor.

"I love this place."

Meta Knight and the Meta-knights stood in a small clearing made up of tree's stumps, now also with a group of wounded perots lying on the floor.

"It's been a while since we got any exercise." Mace Knight said, heaving his weapon onto his shoulder.

"That is true; to fight once more outside of a spar was quite enjoyable." Sword Knight agreed, nodding his lowered head.

Meanwhile both Trident Knight and Blade Knight panted away; their shoulder or lack thereof, moving up and down with each ragged breath.

"T-that was sudden." Trident Knight stated as he looked around worryingly, fearing something else was going to jump.

"If I wasn't so tired...I'd have beaten them all...in seconds." Blade Knight heaved, exhausted from his consistent movement, be it a spar with his leader, running into their destination or fighting off a surprise attack.

"Nah, you're just getting rusty." Ax Knight joked, a chuckle forming upon his lips.

"Am not."

"Hey, the more you deny the more true it becomes." The more relaxed knight mused loudly to his tired companion who decided not to speak further, not because he believed his axe wielding companion but simply because he was tired.

"So...are these poppy bros?"

"Negative, maybe variation." Javelin Knight's digital voice responded to the question, his lone eye wavering over the various individuals that lay on the floor.

Meta Knight came to his crew with a spring in his step, though as a mature professional warrior he hid his joy of the encounter and merely spoke "Men, if the enemies are no more we shall depart."

"Where to boss? Shouldn't we ask our attackers?"

"No, our wits will be sufficient enough, besides the greedy pompous king is ahead and I'll be damned if he gets his hands on the Isabelle before us."

With those words the group departed, walking through more trees and going along an open path. An open path untouched by trees or plants or even the people of the forest. A path that leads to a field of roses.

* * *

"In consideration the girl appears not to be of the Perot but regardless she is not one of us, nor do you appear to be of our clan."

"W-well..." Professor Iru began "that makes sense; after all we are from outside these woods."

This seemed to startle the tribe even more than the idea of a Perot speaking to them. Unlike before though, when a fear for their safety and a suspicion that they would be cursed came upon them, this time they showed plain hate and anger. Their expressions became fierce and their stares filled with bloodlust.

"Impossible! No outsiders dare enter these grounds, and after what they did here none who touch upon it shall leave alive." The leader shouted his spear gripped firmly as he lowered his knees, ready to lunge.

In fact, all of the croucars were ready to strike now, their various weapons drawn.

"W-what do we do what do we do oh professor?" Ume cried her head turning left and right to see foes all around, not even the tightest corner was safe for them to run through.

"Chaaar-Hold it or I'll, I'll...I'll cast a spell on you!" Iru cried out, wings spread wide as his stuttering voice echoed throughout the clearing.

The men stopped; mostly stunned by the sudden outburst but then they started taking into account what he just said.

"H-he's a wizard?"

"That would make sense, he is an old one."

"That thing he's carrying it must be some sort of magic."

"W-we can beat some old mage right, right?"

"You're a mage?" The leader asked Iru with a voice tinted with doubt and disbelief.

As Iru breathed, attempting to sort his thoughts out the croucar leader continued keep his attention on Iru, his look a mix of caution and uneasiness yet still his intense anger laid bare.

"Y-yes, I'm an all powerful wizard, make one move and you're kaput."

A tension filled the air as both sides became still, neither willing to play their hand. Iru hoped with all his willpower that they would believe the bluff and surrender in the face of an unknown might. Considering the look of irritation on the leaders face Iru concluded he was struggling to decide, to take the risk or to not. Attack a wizard and be vanquished, or surrender to a powerless foe.

"I didn't know you were a wizard professor." Ume whispered into Iru's hearing side, her innocent nature leading her to believe in the bluff as much as the enemies.

"Quiet!" Iru snapped, though in a whisper as to not let the croucars hear.

Suddenly the spear's wooden end struck the ground before being raised to the sky and boldly the leader declared "Even if you have magic I am the leader of the clan who rule these skies. I will not back down."

Suddenly the leader charged, his closest comrades closely reacting to his speedy manoeuvre and in the vigour of it all the rest of the encirclement began to charge in at the unarmed duo. Iru closed his eyes along with Ume, awaiting the worst to come, only to catch wind of a strange sound. The old crow opened his eyes, noticing a strange shadow hovering over the spot where the leader was recently standing. Soon others began to hear the sound, the sound of something large and heavy falling from the sky. The tree's shattered and the wind was shimmed away as a large cannonball descended. It landed not with a gentle thud but a mighty crash, whipping up a force that blew all the birds (and one poppy bros) off their feet, and sending a mighty tremor through the earth.

Along with the forceful air and mighty tremor came dust and it was awhile before the group could make clear of what occurred. The sight they behold sent shivers down their spines. Where once their leader had stood and made his speech was a giant black object, known only to Iru and Ume as a cannonball. Iru tried to keep a straight face but this was obviously unexpected even to him. The others meanwhile were simply shocked, most of all was the leader kept his attention to the bullet and where he had stood before his charge and then turned to the 'wizard of the outside'.

The croucar raised a wing, this time the entire croucar clan gathering to him, and they immediately bowed in the direction of the professor. The crowd of war painted croucars wielding weapons bowed before them beside the cannonball, which sat content in a crater it had created.

"Please don't harm us oh mighty wizard." The croucars cried.

* * *

He bounded along; skidding with his skates against the tree's and hopped to and fro when the roots threatened to disrupt his momentum. It was irritating him, this journey through the forest but he knew what he wanted the oppurtunities that lay further on. The forest was but the first obstacle and one that was almost over.

He halted his movements, his skates braking suddenly to inspect what was ahead, but he needn't have seen who was there, he could hear them.

"I-it wasn't like that at all."

_That was them all right._

"Y-yeah, we thought we were going to perish till you guys arrived."

_They took care of Whispy Woods for me, now the rest will be a breeze._

"So you wanted to perish in one another's arms." Gooey added, enjoying his well timed teasing.

_I best get on my way._

"Yes-I mean no-I mean... stop confusing me."

It was at this point that Gooey, Kirby, Adeleine and Kirby began to rush off to the Dark Woods, their excitement letting them stay no longer. Then, all of a sudden something zoomed past at high speeds, knocking the group aside and rushing off into the woods while gleefully laughing. The group tumbled to the ground but were only buffeted by the sudden tackle and pulled themselves up instantly, trying to catch sight of the far gone being.

"W-who was that?" Dee asked as he picked his hat off the ground, patting quickly to knock off any dirt on the already dirtied and worn hat.

"That man's sure lucky we aren't got a speed limit in Dreamland." Gooey mumbled as he simply rolled upright.

As the more talkative trio complained about the racing figure who had sped through them Kirby looked on, his mind remembering the familiar giggle, the rush of wind, and the orange figure who zipped and sagged through the trees in the distance.

"Him again poyo."

* * *

**_I managed to write this chapter up fairly quick, I had already finished it by christmas eve. All I needed them was to edit it and I could go back to enjoying all my presents (which currently translates as dying repeatively on Donkey Kong Country Returns and sitting in bed all day watching NCIS). _**

**_Don't have much to say on the chapter though I do find myself becoming quite fond of the character of Professor Iru, who has become quite fun to write about. The next chapter will feature a bit of action for nearly everyone and a good deal of comedy._**

**_I hope everyone had a merry christmas (or a merry 'place the name of the holiday you celebrate') and I hope you all have a happy new year. I'll be trying to update every month in 2011 aside from February and I hope to have finished this fanfic by next year as well. I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 5 of Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure!_**


	7. Purple Perils!

_**This will mark the first time I have updated according to plan twice in a row (confetti falls down and the audiance appluades). That's kind of sad in a way. Anyway here is chapter 6 which was actually rather easy to write. All I did was sit down and type for several hours, often staying up after one in the morning and it got done incredibly easy.**_

_**I'm rather proud of the manner this chapter goes about itself. Hopefully this chapter's unique introduction style of the ruins and fleshing out of the characters will please you as much as it has pleased me. I've fixed all the grammer and spelling errors but if you notice any I've missed just say. I know I could a bit of an improvement to the chapter but I felt it descriptive enough without slowing the pace of the chapter. Anyway enjoy the chapter folks.**_

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_**Chapter 6: Purple Perils! Arriving at the ruins!**_

When the tribesmen moved within their home they moved in silent groups. As their home was a dangerous place and it was better to be cautious within the purple planted forest. Everyday there was another chance for a life to end, be it by an enemy tribe or the forest's numerous disasters. Today was different for the croucar tribe as they moved in one large unit, men eyeing all sides for safety measures. Today was different for instead of taking the concealed routes were ambush was less prominent they were taking the wider, manoeuvrable paths. Today was different because they were in the presence of an all powerful wizard, or so they thought.

Old croucar Iru and his non-perot assistant Ume were being escorted through the labyrinth of tree's by their former aggressors, who had now allied themselves the reaching duo out of a combination of fear and respect. The warrior croucars respected Iru for his 'mystical abnormal strengths' though this was also what they feared, for the art of magic, though known about within the forest, was beyond their understanding.

Also within the centre was the tribal leader, who saw it as his personal duty to be closest to their defendant, and who was also the only person who could communicate without bowing down in awe.

"So this forest of ours is known as the dark woods from afar?" The warrior leader inquired with a small smile upon his face.

"Quite right, though it was Whispy Woods who declared its name and he always was trying to dissuade any entries into the forest," Iru replied, a smirk on his face as he chuckled lightly "So what is the true name of your home?"

To this the warrior spread his wings out to the dangerous violets of plants and trees, thus declaring "Our home is as you see it, Purple Plants we know it by."

Purple Plants was indeed a fitting name, not just because the place literally consisted of purple flowers, monsters, earth and foliage but it also did not imply that the place was a woods when it was a forest. It was also an oddity that the colour purple was unanimous in all things, the beings of the forest able to blend with their surroundings, and take full advantage of their naturally camouflaging environment.

"I can imagine this land has always been known as Purple Plants, its fitting."

"Well..." The warrior began, scratching his peak, "this land we live in used to be just the Whispy Woods forest but was cordoned off from the rest of the forest few hundred years past."

Ume, who had been almost completely silent till now, spoke up "Would this be around the time of the Dream Land War?"

The various warriors around flinched, some shivered, and others whispered. Their leader said nothing at first gave a slight nod to Ume but then followed up by saying "Great apprentice to the wizened bird, I entreat you humbly to be silent, only to cease unnerving the men abound, for though you be not a Perot the resemblance is uncanny and they lose knowledge of this fact at odd times."

Ume understood, but puffed her cheeks up in annoyance, clearly irritated by the whole thing.

"I hope I have not displeased the student of oh so strong a teacher."

"No, no, she's fine I assure you Mr..." Iru began realising as he spoke that he knew not the name of the warrior he was addressing.

"My name wizard of the outside, that be Tane, tribe leader." Tane declared with pride embedded in his words, the various birds around raising their spears to the sky at the exact moment before returning to their duties.

"Mr. Tane then, I appreciate your cooperation in this journey of mine though somewhat forced however I was wondering if you have ever heard of any other outsiders coming into Purple Plants."

"Before my time maybe today never confirmed but..." Tane paused, a feather to his beak in thought, "Times come when signs of men unfamiliar with our land appear. We assume that the new ones of our life who have yet learn the ways make such foolery but an outsider could also do as such."

"How about eight years ago?"

"Yes, some, a loss of food too from another camp as well. If one not of here were to survive their best chance be to side with a clan, and he chose not ours then and so we no not much unless said clan attack then we decide to learn of our foes."

"Well he does make reference to many tribes but always from a distance." Iru mused to himself, Tane puzzled over the overheard comment and Ume still irritated that she was not allowed to speak.

"A thousand pleas of forgiveness for any offence but wizard, why do you approach the feared ruins of our land?"

"A friend of mine came to this place eight years ago, this journal somehow managed to return after all that time and I do not know where he is. I do know though that he is somewhere around here and that his last entry was of the day he decided to enter the ruins."

The croucars shifted nervously as they walked and with nothing better to do Ume observed the clan. The very mention of the ruins caused them to shudder, a sense of disbelief cloud their eyes. Their wings would grip their weapons tighter as if the very mention of place would conjure a monster."

"The man be braver than any other, or foolish. The ruins are a feared place, though none know who live why, but our ancestors warned vigorously about the twisted place. The forest has many dangers but ones we know exist, the ruins are dangerous yet we do not know why. The fear of what we know not is more powerful than that we can face." Tane stated, his men all solemnly nodding.

The clan were stronger, far stronger than the dreamlanders who knew nought but peace and harmony but they too feared. They feared not the strong but the intelligent. They did not fear the beast that ran rampant but the shadow that lay in wait.

* * *

"Here I was expecting a turtle to ambush me," King Dedede stated as he saddled his hammer on one shoulder and stared at the mini-boss before him, "but instead I encounter an elephant."

The blue hammer wielding penguin looked forth at the two legged grey elephant, almost equal to him in both height and width. The Phan Phan, usually going about their days with large innocent eyes, appeared now with a plaster on its head and a fierce fire burning ferociously in its eyes.

"Sir, turtles don't live in the forest either." The King's gordo assistant replied without humour, the foolery of his King having soon gotten tiresome.

"I know that, I know that but the fortune teller said I would fight with a turtle but instead here's an elephant." The King yelled back, his eyes to the gordo at his side but his pointing hand turned to the grey skinned creature.

"You may fight a turtle later." One of the waddle doo's said.

"No, I wanted to fight it now, I was sure I was going to fight it now but instead this elephant here wants to fight." The penguin snapped back.

"Well, you were the one to hit it thinking it was a rolling turtle in the first place..." One waddle dee bravely (more like stupidly) said aloud and to this his royal highness heard.

"What was that!"

"N-nothing Heika, I mean how about we deal with this insignificant menace Dedede-tono." The waddle dee cried out, earning him some nasty glares from his fellow comrades.

"You know what; the all supreme King of Dreamland would like tha-before King Dedede could finish his sentence the ignored elephant bulldozed into its aggressor. The villain came off the ground for a fraction of a second but his feet was soon skidding cross the floor, trying to stop the momentous push of a rolling mammal colliding into him.

"I was going to warn you about that No kimi," The gordo said calmly as the elephant jumped up and down in a mixture of anger and high spirits, "but maybe my warning should be reserved for our large friend here."

The gordo need not look back to know his King was angry; it wasn't hard for him to become angry. Thus the group were careful in how they treated him for his anger was immense.

"As King I feel it fit to show you your crimes against a man of royalty and punish you personally." King Dedede seethed as he grasped his hammer with both wing like hands.

* * *

"Our wits will be sufficient enough, sure Meta Knight-sama sure." Ax Knight moaned as he fended off a large rose monster from feasting on his small, meatless body.

"If you have time to complain you have time to fight." Meta Knight called back at his follower, slashing his tricky opponents with ease.

The group of swordsmen had continued in haste, with a desire to get ahead of King Dedede and his group, and so journeyed through an area of roses. These roses though were a lot larger and turned out to be a group of Lovely Roses, demonic thorn covered roses waiting to ambush the unsuspecting.

"Oh I'm not complaining, just sayin, we could have asked for directions." Ax Knight reminded his leader once more, clearly not willing to let go of the mess the hasty march had sent them into.

A rosy red rose shot out from underneath Ax Knight, who quickly threw his axe in front to defend himself. The attack had caught him by surprise though and the plant was beginning to lift him up when his comrade in arms Blade Knight cut cleanly through the stem of the flower, killing it.

"You're getting rusty Ax Knight." Blade Knight said with a smirk.

Meanwhile Mace Knight swung his hefty weapon in vain but the plants would always pull back their heads and try to gobble him up. The large warrior was beginning to get fed up of hopping back to avoid all these foes.

"Gather to the centre men, we shall fight as one." Meta Knight order shot out and all the members of the crew drew back into the centre of the rose field.

The Lovely Roses far away began to hide in their buds, seeing no reason to be on the lookout when their prey was too far for them to reach. The crew thought they were safe but still kept their gaurd up, a good thing for Sword Knight as a lovely rose, perched into a tree swooped down to attack the knight. The rose was easily dealt with however what the knight did not expect was for another rose to appear to attack at the exact moment.

"Darn it, I'm open." Sword Knight thought as the rose covered his arm.

But the arm was covered for but a second as a javelin went through the creature before it could swallow the knight for its evening meal.

"Thank you Javelin Knight, I 'am in your debt."

"No thanks required, it is a duty to fight for comrades in need."

The Meta-Knights looked at the hundreds of roses surrounding them, each eager to feast on their flesh. Each one faster and lengthier than the lovelies they had dealt with in the past. Each one getting in their way to the ruins.

"It's a lovely day guys so how about we go flower picking?"

* * *

To the natives of the forest, the men who were told in their childhood to never set foot in the ruins, they saw a great evil before them. The green yellow grass was hellfire and the large pillars were cataclysmic weapons once wielded by giants. The gaping doorway that seethed into the ground was a bottomless pit and the undecipherable carvings were written by those plagued by dark matter.

To the professor the transference of purple to yellow was a parallel to his doubts on his faith in the journal. Seeing the beating rays of hope pour from the open sky and embody the faded temple gave him hope too, that his long lost friend could be found.

To the professor's assistant, no external matters affected her outlook and rather, only the knowledge that the place was a ruin by now, once a temple, led her to be sceptical. For sure the place had a roof, and pillars to support said roof. Tiles were laid on the floor and carvings were made on the outer walls but she wouldn't say it was a temple. More of an entrance to an underground lair, the building structure being there for no adequate reason other than to look nice, maybe there as a monument for the sake of a monument.

In short two of the people saw ruins, rustic and majestic, while the rest could only pronounce what they felt as eerie.

"Great Wizard of the other side this be the further we set foot, rules state we enter at no cost." Tane declared.

Ume was about to speak but held back on this, tilting her head over to her senior and whispering her question.

"Ah, that would be wise of us," The professor agreed as he turned towards members of his fellow species and said "We are willing to comply by your wishes, and I will not use my great sorcery to pull you along, however my assistant here wishes to know why you do not trek into the ruins?"

The tribesman looked doubtful over this, the younglings not knowing themselves why they were not to enter but Tane did not hesitate long to speak.

"The first reason is to abide by our ancestors wishes, never to set foot in the ruins. The second reason is we have no reason, why should we enter the ruins? As far as we people, or any who abide in Purple Plants know, nothing we care for is there."

"Are you not curious as to what mystery lies in wait, do you not wish to pursue knowledge?" Iru asked, a man of his kind always inspecting what interests him.

"No, we know how to survive and know how to live happily. That is enough. There be also a third reason as to forbid entrance," Tane said and the seniors behind him nodded in agreement "None who have entered these ruins have returned."

Iru was silent, and was Ume was silent as well. Everything was silent except for the distant rustling that came from other areas around the forest. To all this knowledge, Iru simply nodded.

Tane turned towards Ume and with a slight courtesy said "Thanks be with you non-perot for following my people's wishes."

Ume brimmed with a smile at this, and though she hopped onto one foot, changing the foot she hopped with upon each hop, she said not a word, but showed her pleasure.

With that Iru and Ume turned towards the ruins, the broken down temple, the not actually temple in a not actually woods which is not actually called Dark Woods and walked on. The two small figures, widely differing in age, walked into the ruins, and were enclosed by its darkness. Then silence dawned once again.

* * *

Two large, heavy bodies slammed into one another, the dull sound of heavy weights bristled against the trees. The blue penguin wrestled with the grey elephant for a moment, neither giving way. The hammerless King threw his hands underneath his armless opponent and lifted him into the air. With a yell of effort King Dedede threw Phan Phan into a nearby tree.

With the animal dazed the King reached for his hammer, laying just in his reach and jolted over to his opponent. Raising his weapon like baseball bat, he then swung like a golfer; pushing Phan Phan through the heavily fortified tree it had its back too.

"Wahaha the win is for the King of course!" The ruler of Dreamland said with glee as his opponent lay before him, unconscious.

"Go King go!" The waddle dee's and doo's cheered at their boss's victory only for him to break up their cheering with a thrown apple.

"Why didn't you guys take care of him for me?"

"But, but you said you'd take him."

"No excuses, I'm the King; I shouldn't be doing all the work."

"Ahem, no kimi?" The Gordo began to say, obtaining his superiors attention "Would it not be in your best interest to make haste before a certain adversary of yours reaches the prize before you?"

King Dedede looked at his assistant as if he was an idiot but this look was clouded over by realisation.

"Men, your punishments can wait, to the ruins we go." The King bellowed, relieving his attendants somewhat (and hoping King Dedede would forget about punishing them later).

* * *

A large sabre-tooth tiger with ink marks doodled onto his face dodged Kirby's tossed bronze sickle and growled back irritably.

The Galbel pounced forth, swiping the hero away with its yellow furred paw but decided not to pursue. Instead the Galbel got ready to pounce by lowering its legs. Kirby quickly retained his balance and deciding not to hold anything back enlarged his cutter blade to twice its size and threw it with full force. Having already crouched down all the Galbel had to do was to crouch down lower to avoid the attack, and then to redirect his attention to a now flying Kirby. The tiger leaped up, barely missing Kirby in its pounce, and fell back to the ground on its legs.

A creaking sound was the only thing that distracted the Galbel and it turned round to see one of the large tree's of Purple Plants coming down upon him, cut down from Kirby's extra strong cutter boomerang.

The yellow furred Galbel hollered in pain as the tree crushed him, rendering him unconscious.

"Poyo" Kirby cheered as he started to wave his arms up and down, humming a familiar tune.

"Does anyone think this scene reminds you of something?" Adeline asked her companions as she watched the puffball now adorned once again with a metallic duck billed hat do a small dance routine.

"Déjà vu, feels like it happened only moments ago as well." Dee said as he prodded his head in thought trying to remember what the scene reminded him of.

"So it's just me and Kirby who have to deal with all these foes?" Gooey whined.

Dee spun round, pointing at the dark matter accusingly and shouted out "You're the one that got us into that mess, why on Popstar did you start scribbling on a sleeping tigers face?."

Gooey lay on his side and stared blankly at Dee before reply "Because he was asleep, it'd be stupid to do it while he was awake."

"That's not the point, you don't just see the most ferocious powerful thing you can find and start using his face as pad of paper simply because you want to." Dee argued back.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't lump all the blame on me. After all Adeline was the one who gave me the pen once I asked." Gooey flimsily retorted back with though he did not seem to notice the frailty of his argument.

Dee quickly turned round to his painting friend and said "Adeline, please don't give permanent markers to the groups idiot."

"Oi!"

The girl to whom was being addressed was busy painting the ongoing battle between the tree's to greedily devour as much of the earth's nutrients as possible but still had spare attention to reply "I...didn't expect him to something so stupid with it."

"Believe me if you leave him to his own devices his stupidity will dumbfound you in no time."

"Again; Oi!"

By now Kirby had grown tired of his dancing, the felled opponent making few comments on his show. Kirby was disappointed, but most people he beat up seemed to ignore him whenever he began dancing afterwards, and he had gotten used to his opponents falling asleep before he can show how pleased he is of his victory. The pink puffball waddled like a waddle dee over to his friends and asked "going?"

Dee looked over to Adeline, who tried to ignore her friends question and continued to paint, although with more haste.

Sighing, the small minion creature said "Adeline, we need to get going."

"H-hold on, let me finish this. When will I ever get a chance to paint the Dark Woods again, this the only chance I'll ever get. I need to paint." She replied with panic in her voice, knowing that they shouldn't stay out in the midst of the dangerous forest but longing to enjoy this chance of a lifetime.

"C'mon Adeline we've got people running off in here without reason, they could be stealing me and Kirby's tomato." Gooey said causing Kirby to squeal in fright.

"Not tomato poyo!"

"Yes the tomato Kirby."

To the news that his precious tomato maybe in danger our hero and saviour sprung into immediate action. With surprising speed and force Kirby lifted up Adeline and her canvas and ran off into the woods while lifting the person and object.

"W-wait Kirby! Put me down! I want to finish my painting, my painting." Adeline moaned as she was carried away at rapid speeds, deeper and deeper into Purple Plants.

* * *

"By my blade, the strength in numbers you pride yourselves in, shall disappear!" Meta Knight bellowed, his deep voice reached out undisturbed from beneath his mask.

The small knight grasped his legendary sword above him, both hands on the hilt and poised to strike the earth. His men leaped to the sides, gaining as much distance from the oncoming monsoon of pain. Galaxia gleamed, its blade sparkling with electricity as it was stabbed into the soil of Purple Plants and with that a whirlwind of destruction came forth. The lone, storm clouded tornado drove straight ahead, it's harsh winds and crackling lightning tearing through the plant based bodies of the Lovelies. With a whine the tornado stopped, dispersing instantly, and leaving behind a wasteland of a field.

"To think, it was so nice before we go here." Ax Knight joked as he and the other knights gathered round their leader.

"Excellent swordsmanship as ever Meta Knight-sama." Sword Knight praised his leader in a mid-bow of sorts.

At that time Javelin Knight was rotating its body in circles, Meta-Knight not saying a word.

"All clear sir, opposition eliminated."

"Good, we have wasted enough time here," Meta Knight replied to the electronically voiced comrade of his and turned round, his sword sheathed and his cape swishing upon the gentle breeze "come!"

And the group did as they were told, following their leader as he made his way onwards, except for the still scanning Javelin Knight who blurted out "Warning: fast approaching object coming towards us."

The Knights stopped and turned round to see a speeding orange figure, speeding in a straight path towards them.

_Oh, why if it isn't my old buddy Meta Knight. Might as well say hi now shouldn't I._

Seeing that the person had no intention of stopping and would crash into them in but a second the knights jumped out of the way. Meta Knight on the other hand threw his cape over his body just as the figure was to crash.

The charging person did not stop as he ran straight through the knight, whipping up a dust cloud as he went. The men attempted to keep an eye on the figure, or at least see to their leaders safety but their eyes were covered.

_Such a shame, he didn't wish to partake in a small gift of my talent._

As the figure slipped through the winding tree's a masked puffball appeared from nowhere, flinging his cape off as he appeared on the spot he had been standing.

"Meta Knight-sama." The group cried upon seeing the intimidating villain safe and sound, having used his dimensional cape to narrowly dodge the charge.

"Men, interference is before us and we shall catch this disrespectful cretin who dared push through us." Meta Knight snapped anger evident in his voice as he proceeded to chase after the speeding boss.

* * *

To the servants, who had no real reason to be here other than following orders, the ruins were a lifesaver. For finding the ruins meant that the torturous expedition into the Dark Woods would be over and they could get back to being ordered to do constant chores or humiliating acts to please their king.

To the Gordo, whose higher intellect and general indestructibility granted him a self regarded belief of superiority over the others; the ruins were merely an ancient relic. An admirable relic with a long and interesting history bound to it but the quality or preservation of such architecture was outside his realm of interest.

To the King it was a mingy, run down dump incomparable to the fine stone castle of home but he didn't care about any of that. If it housed mountains and mountains of gold inside then all this adventure would be worth it, though the additional relief of boredom served as a bonus.

Before King Dedede and his attendants were the ancient ruins of Dark Woods.

"We...we made it!" One Waddle Doo slowly said, a tear coming to his lone eye.

"We've hiked through peril after peril but now we've reached our goal." Another Waddle Dee replied.

"Your Majesty, does this make you happy?" The often abused and beaten Waddle Dee closest to the grinning penguin asked.

"Of course it does, in fact men...I have a speech to give out on this fine occasion," The King bellowed as he turned round to his men, who stood transfixed in awe, though the gordo simply groaned in his head "We, and by we I mean me, have challenged the ancient law of the guardian of the forest, I have braved unknown territory, and taken down the beasts that inhabited this place. Now you guys stand before my great glory while I stand before a lesser glory, and as we enter I just want to give you guys my th-The wind whipped as a man on roller-skates skidded past at extreme speeds, interrupting the King and pushing him over on the ground.

_Even me old boss is here. Well that fat oaf isn't going to catch up with me anytime soon._

The orange racing person sped off into the ruins thus being the third person to have entered on this day. The crowd of loyal (mostly because they don't want to be sacked) guards of the kingdom watched in shock as the dazed king got up off the ground. The penguin did his usual groaning, wondering what just happened but he soon regained his senses and had something to get angry about.

"That guy! I know that guy! He dare push me aside, steal the honour of being the first to enter the ruins, but most of all, he dare dirty my clothes with paint! King Dedede roared, proceeding to throw a tantrum.

He desperately wiped at his clothes, a stripe of yellow paint upon them but did the job hastily and opted to grab his hammer and swing it wildly.

"Watch out, watch out!" The Dee's yelled in panic and even the gordo backed off for fear of being sent up to the stars.

"That cowardly nuisance, I'll get him and pummel him into dust!" The King roared once more before charging into the ruins without a drop of grace.

"Wait for us!" The King's men called out to their ruler, running into the ruins to catch up with him.

The rarely undisturbed grounds of the ruins became peaceful once more, something it had been lacking today. The flutters flew undisturbed and the wind whistled as gently as signing birds. If a person or a group were to enter this tranquil scene it would ruin the beloved peace and so it was a beauty none were to see for ten minutes. Then people came.

Now this next group were the Meta-Knights, who carried themselves with more dignity than the others, their anger was less rampant than King Dedede's and their joy was less childish than Kirby's. Even in hot pursuit the knights approached the building with grace, movements slow and careful. But they were no better than a rampaging fool or a playful child as their entrance came as assassins, silent but marred by killing intent.

To the Knights the ruins were sacred and yet not of their interest. The building with its worn feel and battle fed grounds had a deep history to it but the knights were otherwise preoccupied with the hunt. Even when ignoring the hunt, as they did upon seeing the ruins and giving it a brief glance of admiration, their interests lay in what was inside. This was more their leader's thoughts but his commands were what they followed.

"Odd, bizarre energy emanating from ruins." Javelin Knight blurted out as he continued to stare at the ruins.

"It does feel odd, but I can't put my finger on why it's odd." Mace Knight mused as he rubbed his insect helmet head.

"Meta Knight-sama shall we march forward into the ruins?" Sword Knight asked his superior but received no answer "Meta Knight-sama?"

"Yes, yes men we may enter." Meta Knight said, his men taking heed and walking into the ruins before him.

The veteran swordsman and Kirby villain stared at the ruins for a moment longer, comprehending the strange sensation that tickled his blue body but shrugged it off and walked onwards into the ruins.

* * *

To the hero of our story the ruins reminded him of the temple he explored in his great cave offensive, though with the array of daylight shining down the earthly colours of the building looked faded and weak.

To the blue blob of dark matter the ruins were uninteresting in all their details but the general design, a worn out building finely carved with levels and support pillars appealed to his sense of adventure.

To the waddle dee the ruins were a sign to rejoice, Dee's belief that things would start to get easier within a sheltered area. The area was also calm and quiet, a peace he greatly admired in Dreamland but was often disturbed by some great evil; or Kirby and King Dedede arguing over food.

To the painter she beheld a glory before her eyes. Years of dedication were apparent in the work as her eyes absorbed in every fine detail, every effect of weathering and every glimpse of the civilisation that built it. The rocks were smooth, yet tough, and the ruins though damaged by time were standing as strong as ever. The architect showed signs of paint, simple lines around, and faint images closer to the gaping entryway that lead down into the land. The general colour of stone had now become a yellow, fitting in well with its nearby yellow grasses.

Adeline waited no longer, her artist blood inspiring her to work as she got out her canvas, set up her equipment, and without a word got ready to paint.

Planning originally on passing a word or two with his artist friend, Dee chose to gather with his other two friends, seeing how focuses she was on her painting. Gooey was going ecstatic, mumbling about all the neat things inside, whilst Kirby passed comments about his prior temple explorations, what the ruins appear to have once been.

"I've been meaning to ask you Kirby, who was that guy from earlier?" Dee asked his companion, who at first started with bewilderment having forgotten all about the speeding figure.

"Yeah I wanna know too, I didn't recognise him, though I didn't get a good look." Gooey added, trying to join in the conversation in any way he could.

"Oh, him poyo," Said the small child hero "Dedede man poyo."

"He works for King Dedede? I didn't know he had anyone that fast working under him."

"No, fore." Kirby replied to Dee's question, shaking his small head/body.

"Fore? Before? He used to work for King Dedede!"

"Poyo!" Kirby chirped, nodding his head/body up and down with a smile.

Dee was just then about to ask finally who the person was when Gooey suddenly blurted out "Oh no, everyone else has probably entered the ruins."

"Well I do believe everyone was ahead of us, so what of it?" Dee asked an eye rising to this sudden outburst.

"With so many people there they'll have eaten the food in no time." Gooey yelled out, though with little reason to as the people he was addressing were in front of him and Adeline was in lala land when immersed in her work.

Dee fell flat on his face, expecting something important to emerge for once, out of Gooey's mouth. Picking himself off the floor Dee was about to point how there was no such tomato in the ruins when Kirby began running for the ruins.

"Tomato!" He yelled as he dashed off into the dark corridors of the underground ruin.

"Kirby, wait for me." Gooey called out as he slid after his pinker friend, sliding smoothly across the beaten dirt.

When both Kirby and Gooey had disappeared into the run down temple Dee had no choice but to follow, running as quick as he could in the hopes that he could catch up. Meanwhile Adeline continued to paint, every brushstroke a movement of grace. Her hand moved nimbly, adjusting in minor ways to create the best results. Her artwork was finished quite quickly and proud of what she had done, turned round to ask the others what they thought.

"Hey guys, come have a look at-Adeline's smile turned upside down when she noticed the quiet and empty space around her.

It took a mere moment for her to realise but it was a delayed pause nonetheless as she cried "They've left without me!"

* * *

_**Out of all things this chapter has done well the thing that pleases me the most is the characterisation, which only feels weak in the King Dedede scenes. I've been enjoying Professor Iru as a character and my interpretations of Adeline and Ax Knight always makes them fun to write about.**_

_**Now my 18th birthday is coming up in February and as its also a short month I will not be updating Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure in that time. The upside to this though is that a chapter in March is pretty much assured as a result, unless something goes horribly wrong. Hopefully I have not just jinxed it with that statement.**_

_**I'm a little bit dissapointed that now I'm actually updating on time I'm not getting any reviews. For me it's not too big a deal but I'm pretty sure my chapters aren't perfect and some criticism would be helpful in pointing out my errors and weaknesses. Still review only if you want to, I'm not forcing you or begging you. So long as I enjoy my writing and others enjoy reading it I've got nothing to cry about. I hope you all enjoyed chapter 6 of Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure!**_


	8. Exploration Time!

_**Sorry about the wait folks even though this time the delay was intentional meaning I've still updated on time. I set my next update for March and here is an update in March. Also, as my History exam takes place in May it means I have plenty of time to upload the next chapter in April. For my May update I might be a little late but as the exam is within the first 15 days of the month it gives me around 15 days to write the fanfic (and not all my time will be spent focusing on my exam so I'll still have time for this).**_

_**Despite a lack of reviews my writing of this fanfic is on a role and my reviewing is back in business (in fact I'm now going about calling myself the Review King). Not much I can say on this chapter that won't be a spoiler for this chapter so my comments will be at the end. I will comment though on my recent purchase of Kirby's Epic Yarn which is, as the games title suggests, epic. For some reason I can't get the idea of AngieXKirby and AngieXPrince Fluff out of my head. Enough of my babbling though, I'll leave you to read the chapter now.**_

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* * *

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Chapter 7: Exploration Time! What lurks within the ruins?

_People have entered the ruins, my ruins. Perfect, then all is going well. Perhaps he is already here, I know he'll come and then, my revenge will be fulfilled. Come on Dreamlander, I'm waiting._

* * *

"Have you noticed it as well Ume?" Iru said aloud, surveying the walls with dedication "About this place?"

Ume, pushing her hood up to which had slipped from her brown locks and over her eyes, looked around the corridor. She did so just to make sure, so as to not leap to conclusions and so she went about checking everything she saw. The walls were firm, flat stone, carefully melded together as so not an inch of space remained. The walls then lost much in the process of carving, as every available space was used to add symbol after symbol, creatures unseen and words unspoken for many years. Each bit flowed seamlessly, one carving trailing onto the other, a falcon would make a plant and then make hieroglyphics, as if they were transforming into the next thing. Yes, one thing was off...

"It's pristine," Ume replied, "it's like it was made only yesterday, not even a speck of dust."

Iru nodded, tapping against the wall and running his fingers along the carvings. His eyes also glimpsed the floor and with a sigh, began to walk on.

"Even the floor is spotless." Iru sighed to himself, now tapping the floor with his foot.

He remained silent for a bit, pondering various speculations and theories in his mind. He could think of many answers but few reasons, and with that he could think of many ways to discover more.

"_I'll concern myself with that later, my primary objective is to my find my friend,"_ The Croucar thought to himself as with a steely gaze he continued to walk "make a note of this Ume, I wish to experiment with this place later. For now though..."

Iru needed not continue his line. Ume opened up and quickly jotted down their ideas on the place and then skipped over to her teacher.

* * *

As it was to be expected the inner sanctum of the ruins was dark, very dark. It was so firmly constructed that only the barest of spots had hints of light shining through. The only other light source was a strange florescent moss that shone a pale, enchanting light all around it.

"Darn...I lost him," The King panted, his wing-hands hanging loosely at the sides of his body, "where on Dreamland did he go?"

"W-wait up Heika."

The heavily breathing King turned his head to see his men, even more knackered than he was, trudging and stumbling along. The exception being the Gordo, as when he appeared it was apparent that he was in no rush to keep up the man whom he had sworn loyalty too.

"Pardon my rudeness, but did he escape your majesty?" The Gordo asked, the large penguin having simply looked blankly at his men till now.

"Yeah, but only cause I let, he isn't worth the trouble," said King Dedede "Anyway what took you so long."

The Waddle Dee's and Doo's, one or two who had taken to lying on the floor, took a few breaths before replying "s-sorry your majesty, we were not able to keep up with you."

The King, rather than being angry, was rather pleased and so took to gloating "yes, well...I most certainly am fast and all."

"_Only when you want too though" _The Gordo thought to himself as he began to think, thinking back on the route they had taken to get where they were.

"Now that we're all here let's forget about that that skating loser for now and focus on finding me treasure. Go men!" King Dedede yelled with enthusiasm.

Though such energy and motivation went to waste as in a rare moment for the waddling servants they chose to disobey the order. Though disobey is the incorrect word, more like, not perform as sufficiently as they groaned and moaned, trying to pull themselves up to their feet. Naturally this angered the king.

"I said go men which means get up and start looking before I launch you through the roof with my hammer." King Dedede barked and in an instance the men had jumped, though on unsteady feet and began to march.

"Y-yes sir!"

* * *

It didn't matter which of the paths they picked, and it didn't matter what the path was like, there was something strange about the ruins. Meta Knight could feel it, or at least he thought he felt it, a strange feeling within the air. This feeling, when outside, could only be felt from within the ruins, there was not a touch of the sensation in the outside world but inside, inside it was around him.

The masked man stepped carefully but managed to keep a consistent pace to remain positioned at the back of the group. While he looked back and forth, his eyes drawing in as much of his surroundings as possible, his men went on unaware, simply looking for physical clues.

"So...does this place simply go on or does it have any lower levels..?" Mace Knight asked as his gaze remained focused on all details to the left side of the group.

"We went down a floor just by entering the ruins; of course there are more floors. Besides, the place looked too small from the outside to have only one floor." Ax Knight replied from the front, his eyes drooped lazily.

"Shouldn't we assume then that the treasures are stored at the very bottom?" Blade Knight asked.

"Affirmative...however we lack knowledge of entryway to lower levels." Javelin Knight responded as he spun constantly, scanning the area literally.

"Let's assume it's the stairs that go down like all places and just go 'hey look, stairs,' when we find them." Ax Knight mused in a dull fashion fitting his current state of boredom.

"This place though, we should assume it has traps...right Meta Knight-sama." Blade Knight stated, looking to the back to the group's leader.

Upon saying this, the group realised that their leader was not just at the back idling but at the back with a constant guard. The others could not see or feel anything suspicious but they knew to trust Meta Knight's judgement.

"Is-Is everything alright back there?" Trident Knight asked as he clasped his trident tighter, expecting something to jump out and attack them there and then.

"This place...do you feel something strange about it?" Meta Knight asked as he begun to walk through his underlings and to the front of the Meta-Knights.

Many were bewildered, having never paid much thought into anything being different, other than the unnaturally glowing plant life that allowed them to see in the dark.

"Let's see here...there's no breeze." Sword Knight said aloud, intended more as a thought and a suggestion than an answer.

"Yeah sure, because being underground as we are isn't an obvious explanation to a lack of a breeze." Ax Knight said sarcastically.

"Close," the masked knight replied, surprising the two conversers, "if one of you would swing your weapon you'd find out why."

Thus Sword Knight began to draw his sword, the others around him backed off in order to allow the demonstration to be performed. Grasping his sword with both hands the green bodied Knight swung once, normal swing of the sword. Other than a lack of sound, the sound of the whipping, no one noticed anything odd about it. Sword Knight however did not move.

"There's no resistance but at the same time it's heavy." Sword Knight commented raising many confused eyes (with their armour on and all it would be difficult for them to raise their eyebrows).

"Please explain."

"Well, when the wind is pushing against you your sword has to slice through the wind and as such it slows. Here there is no resistance and the swing feels smooth and crisp but my sword, it feels heavier."

"In other words this place does not lack wind, and it most certainly has air, it just doesn't move." Meta Knight summed up, clearing away the confusion.

"So...what difference does that make?" Mace Knight asked as all eyes turned to their leader.

"It makes little difference to how we will fight and yet the fact that such a thing occurs in this place is off-putting," Meta Knight began to say as he rested his hand against the wall "thus we shall proceed with utmost-The knight did not finish his line though most could assume what he was to say.

The reason for the interruption was the opening of the floor, and the puffball swordsman sudden fall. Before the Meta-Knights could call out his name the hole in which Meta Knight had fallen into sealed itself up.

* * *

"This was a bad idea, and you know why, because we rushed it, you two went running off down the first corridor you could see and never took notice of which one we went down. To top it off I didn't even try to stop you, heck I simply ran along after you becoming just as lost and now none of know where we are. Another thing gone wrong is..." Dee babbled, voicing his concerns one after the other.

For you see when Kirby ran off into the ruins, followed by Gooey and then by Dee, they ran into the main centre. Once going through the entrance, the first room of the building consisted of firm, towering pillars to support the structure, undamaged like the ones outside. The interesting thing about the room was the multiple doorways, each leading down a different corridor. Now Kirby's mind was preoccupied and in his commonly rash state he sprinted down one at random. As Gooey and Dee were thinking of only how to keep up with Kirby they need not take much notice of the room, or of which doorway they went through.

"Are you done yet?" Gooey whined as he and the others walked by their diminutive, ranting ally.

"...yes, yes I am" Dee huffed, catching his breath from his nonstop complaint.

"Well it's about time, I mean, it's not that big of a deal." Gooey said, unconcerned at the possible predicament they may be in.

"But we are lost; there could have been clues back there."

"It's a straight line. We've been walking down a straight line!" Gooey yelled back and somehow indicating with his tongue the further straightness of the corridor ahead, "besides Adeline goofed up her artwork as a result of her trying to catch up with us and she hasn't complained once."

"That's right, I haven't complained once at how my painting-my painting..." Adeline voice wandered off down the corridor as she remembered the array of colours that bloomed from her brush, and the artwork that was being brought to life on her canvas. Her thoughts then wavered to how, distracted in the absence of people, her brush swung cross the entire page, sullying the beauty.

A chill went down Kirby's (yes he has been paying attention to the conversation), Gooey's and Dee's small backs as they looked upon the one female of the group. The quiet and calm one now emitted an eerie air of anger and saddness over the loss of her artwork, and whose eyes were dull and dark.

"She's possessed again, she's possessed again." Dee cried out in panic, over-exaggerating the silent, sealed fury of their companion.

"We'll give you all the time to do a super-duper terrific painting after we've explored the ruins." Gooey hastily commented.

"All the time, all the time." Kirby said with a constant nod and tinge of apprehension.

"Really?" Adeline asked, her voice mostly monotone but a hint of cheer at the prospect suggested could be heard.

"Yes" The three men answered with a slight bow, the best bow the hipless creatures could perform.

"Okay, I'll forgive you then." Adeline replied with a sudden smile beaming from her face.

Adeline continued to walk along, now with more merriment, while the other three let out a sigh of relief. It didn't take long for Adeline to stop and look back to the others, a look of concern to which was quickly explained. Adeline, and now the whole group, had come across a fork in the road. The corridor seemingly stopped and split into two, separated by a thin triangular wall.

"We're lost." Kirby announced.

"I knew all that rushing would get us into trouble." Dee muttered under his breath.

"I don't see the problem, we've been walking ahead with no clue as to where he headed before so let's just pick a path and go down." Adeline this time said.

Now Gooey, who hadn't been saying much lately, remained silent as he hopped over to a nearby statue.

"You guys discuss and I'll look for clues, kay." Gooey said loud enough for the group to hear as he peered into the deep, gaping eyes of the dusty statue.

* * *

A tap on the shoulder, a small and unfelt pressure was laid upon Ume's shoulder. The second time she felt it, and so she responded.

"Yes professor?"

No response. Yet she felt a third tap of equal strength so she responded in the earlier fashion.

"Yes professor?"

All that could be heard was the sound of her footsteps, and those of the senior bird in front. She received another tap.

"Stop tapping my shoulder sensei!" Ume burst out.

"Ume, how could I be tapping your shoulder, I'm in fro..." Iru spun round to see what the matter was when he fell silent.

Ume realising that Iru had been walking ahead of her the entire time, turned round to greet the 'tapper'.

* * *

For the most part the corridor's were absent of anything, sides for the citizens of dreamland journeying through them. These corridors also only went straight, a seemingly never ending journey going forwards. Thus when the corridor changed its straight path by possessing a corner, and with that corner the proceeding path expanded in width. Even the walls were different, a dark beige that bulged out from its brown neighbours.

"It's seems we can only turn to this path." The Gordo commented, seeing no other way.

"I'm getting tired of all this 'not knowing where we going' business," The King moaned as he leaned on his hammer, "If it weren't for that greedy Kirby coming soon I'd say we'd all have a break about now."

The Kings servants cried a little at knowing they had lost a break because of Dreamlands hero, or rather because of Dreamlands villains' paranoia of Dreamlands hero. One little often abused waddling Dee soon lost interest in moaning as he noticed a row of statues. Upon one statue was a nifty blue bandana that circled the head of the stone, still being.

"_That looks really nice," _the Waddle Dee thought to himself as he walked over, removed the cloth from the equally small statue, and tied it to his head "_a perfect fit."_

For some odd reason though, as the Waddle Dee removed the bandana from the statue, he could have sworn he felt it shiver.

* * *

"There isn't a gap to fit my fingers into; it's as if it didn't even exist." Mace Knight yelled back.

"The floor just opened up, if you can't open it then just smash it to pieces." Blade Knight yelled back.

"Yeah, like this." Ax Knight declared as he heaved his axe and swung it down at the ground.

Mace Knight managed to pull himself away just in time to avoid the bladed weapon, a weapon of which made not even a scratch on the floor.

"Now that is just freaky." Ax Knight mumbled to himself only to have Mace Knight grab his wrist and push to the wall.

"Your face is freaky and one solid hit from me and you won't have to worry about it." Mace Knight yelled in anger, getting his hands almost sliced off wasn't something he enjoyed apparently.

"Stop it, now is not the time to be fighting one another," Sword Knight roared, halting the violent actions of his two comrades, "our master is an unparallel swordsman; any danger in this place is no match to him."

These words seemed to calm the group down as Mace Knight backed off from his axe wielding comrade. The men began to think upon the situation in a calmer manner, a manner soon to be distraught as they heard the sound of people coming towards them. Turning to face the shadows they saw them emerge.

* * *

The 'statues' were thick with dust; their bodies stained a permanent grey from the heaps of it. It now formed as a second skin as if the statues were coated in dull, tight armour. Where the mouth inclined, and various body parts separated from the single mass, cracks formed as creases did on clothes. Upon these creases the colour was not grey but brown, a bronze aged brown, of copper coins gone old and clay vases fallen into the dirt. Shapes and sizes varied as did the inhabitants of dreamland and some were of familiar looks. The Waddle Dee's were there but larger, and with tuffs of hair that was seen on their cousins, the Waddle Doo's. Bronto Burts could be seen but with muscular feet used to heavy lifting, and even one or two new creatures, probably since lost to the world in the passage of time. But all these 'statues' did the same thing, they moved, and all the statues had the same thing, eyes. A lack of proper eyes, but the eye sockets existed and within these gleams a pupil. The pupil was of mist, and shimmered, the moving statues approached with soulless eyes.

When something of the kind of being of these statues, no, these people approach you, horror fills your stomach and brushes against your spine. So it comes as no surprise that throughout the ruins, with each of the groups, screams erupted. Screams that echoed through the ruined walls.

* * *

Gooey was right up to the petrified creatures face, and seemingly frozen with fear as it shrieked a sound unfitting for any denizen of life. Gooey simple stared and licked his slime bodied lips.

It was then that Gooey found his voice and said "Glad you woke up, can you give us directions?"

* * *

**_I had to do a last minute edit with the first Kirby's group scene. Originally Adeline began to argue with the other three and when I looked back on it I thought it felt out of character. Though I have made her a bit too excited in this fanfic than intended and a bit too open than how I planned I feel that the basis of her being a calmer and quieter character should still be retained._**

**_This chapter maybe short but I liked where I ended it. The last part is a joke upon Gooey's simplicity; whereas everyone else is scared of the golem zombie type creatures Gooey does not see it as out of the norm and asks the statue that just sprung to life in front of him for directions. I hope this was conveyed through the writing and if not I will have to think of ways to make it clearer._**

**_I hope you all enjoyed chapter 7 of Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure!_**


	9. Passageway Paradise!

_**Well, it seems I've gotten back on track with my missing deadlines habit. I think I did quite well though, updating on time for as long as I did. I have no excuses for the delay, I had a two week Easter break after all, and the Super Smash Bros contest I opened didn't get in the way much.**_

_**Talking about the contest that I'm holding though (feel free to join if you wish but it is a Super Smash Bros contest, not a Kirby one) I will be placing this fanfic on a hiatus of sorts. With both the contest to run and my A-2 exams being in this month and the next, I will not be able to upload the next chapter of Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure until July. For details of my update schedule you can check my profile, I always have my fanfic writing plans for the year up there.**_

_**Now to talk about this fanfic specifically. I've noted that throughout this fanfic I have been misspelling Adeleine's name as 'Adeline'. I have corrected that mistake in this chapter and will go back and correct past chapters sometime in the future. Other than that there's not much else to say. Enjoy reading!**_

* * *

_**Chapter 8: Passageway Paradise! A maze of hidden passages.**_

Below, in the deeper floors of the ruins, were more hallways. Hallways that were more expansive, hallways that were bright as day, the old walls and ancient carvings entrenched in glimmering moss. These hallways were the most silent, as nothing stirred on the bottom floor. That's how it should have been at least.

"Who knew this place had a maze in it?" The sailor hat wearing albatross murmured as he piloted the vehicle he was in to navigate about the corridors, "I don't even know how long I've been down here and I still haven't found the treasure."

The sailor captain clothed bird kept his machine moving forward, the engines hissing lightly with steam. The silver painted, metallic feet of the machine crushed the illuminating vegetation that covered the floor, and proved no hindrance to the vehicles progress. Onward the albatross went, and though for the most part all the gleaming corridors looked the same, sometimes heaps of moss would have grown out to such an extent that our current focal character would operate his lobster shaped robot to snip away at it with its large mechanical pincers.

"_I'm going to lose my mind if I stay down here much longer," _The pilot thought as he now travelled forth mindlessly, "_I'd kill for some company right now."_

Seemingly, the brown and beige feathered bird's pleas were answered as he soon began to hear someone. The sound of screaming and/or yelling, to which echoed like those of a person falling down a large hole. Such noise was followed by a crashing sound, resembling the noise made by someone falling to the bottom of said hole.

"What in blazes?" The bird said aloud as he turned round to corner, finding the source of the noise.

Metaknight shook his head, throwing off dust and most that had become attached to him via the fall. Though he had just fallen down a very long trap hole, and collided to the floor with a good deal of force, he did not fail in hearing the sound of gears churning. Spinning round Metaknight prepared himself to face this approaching possible threat.

When the two saw one another they froze, the knight did and so did the bird. The mechanical lobster naturally froze considering the bird had froze and it required the bird to move in order to operate it. Silence, like the sort that originally filled the air before the various groups arrival, returned for a brief second.

"M-Metaknight-sama." The bird spurted with a mixture of shock and horror.

"Captain Vul." Metaknight said with a mixture of shock and hate.

* * *

"Run for it dear, run." Iru hollered as he and his student began to sprint away from the zombie like beings behind them.

Well 'sprint' is not the best term to use with Iru, as being a Croucar it is quicker and easier to fly instead. Thus he flew lightly off the ground, just a bit before the poppy bros assistant of his. Iru turned his head round to check that Ume was indeed following him but such a thing also lead him to check on the strange beings that had crept up on the teacher and student.

The creatures were moving, moaning while doing so, but they were not moving fast. In fact their feet were being dragged across the floor, and their muscles creaked and cracked as they forced themselves into movement. Though their attitude was like zombies they did not raise their arms to head height, or leave their arms sagging and drooping, their arms were positioned (for those of them that had arms or hands) were positioned to grasp at the floor, as if they thought they would collapse at any moment and need to drag themselves forward. Their weak and dry mouthed moans were in tune with their struggles to move, as if the walking was causing them pain and the fliers within the group of petrified beings remained flightless.

By now the two were a good distance away and had stopped to examine from afar the strange creatures. This was a difficult task with the lacklustre lighting of the current area.

"There not too fast are they sensei?" Ume asked aloud, though it was more of a statement.

"No...Rigor mortis appears to have set in, or arthritis though I doubt these things before us our living beings," Iru said, his eyes constantly perceiving the situation of the creatures before them, "We should be safe from these things."

Ume breathed a sigh of relief, her heart still pounding from the freight. On the other hand the old Croucar still kept watch, waiting for any change to occur.

"_We can't just presume they are unable to move properly just yet, we still don't even know if these things are dead or alive, or were ever living to begin with."_ The wise bird thought, and such wisdom and patience paid off.

A sudden although slight shaking sensation was felt, the floor, the walls and the ceiling all quivering. The floor upon which the stone zombie like beings stood on paled and the beings suddenly shot upright, as if they were standing to attention. Upon that, once the floor regained its earthy colours, and the ground stopped its quiet shaking, the beings began to relax slowly. From the upright position they dropped down till their bodies arched, and their heads nodded gently.

"My assistant," Iru began to address Ume, turning his head round to her, "It is best we run away as fast as we can."

With that the two turned round to run, though Ume wasn't sure why, and with that the stone creatures sprung into action, dashing at fast speeds towards them.

"Ah, there not slow anymore!" Ume screamed as she began to pick up her pace and run for her life.

"Less talk more running." Iru squawked as he flew as fast as his old wings could allow him.

The two did go forth as fast as they could but it seemed hopeless against the sudden newfound speeds of the creatures behind them. The gap between them began to close, and any chance of hope dispersed into nothingness once the duo reached the wall. The path they had taken was a dead end.

"N-No, we're trapped!" Ume Screamed as she hit against the wall, and then turned to face the dust covered beings before them.

Wailing and moaning as if each rapid movement was agonising, they continued to advance. Ume began to toss out bomb after bomb, hoping she could destroy them, but when one fell another would take its place; their numbers were seemingly endless.

Iru on the other hand, despite the situation at hand, had his focus drawn to the carvings. Before him were numerous patterns, words and messages of an ancient civilisation. For many this would be but a mass of nonsense, for the professor it was but a second language. As the monsters lunged without a drop of grace, Iru grabbed his wailing assistant by the arm, and pressed his wing against one of the nearby walls carvings. With that wall slid open, spinning round like a revolving door, and pulling Iru and Ume into a new corridor, while at the same time blocking off entry to the previous one.

Ume stopped wailing when she realised that she felt no pain from being attacked and opened her eyes to be greeted by darkness.

"Am I dead already? I guess I'm lucky that it was such a painless death." Ume mused aloud before her teacher bonked her on the head.

"Fool, we are still alive. I opened up a trap door and took us through it. We should be safe for now." Iru said, still able to detect where his student was in the moss less and thus lightless area.

"W-where are we professor?" Ume said, pulling herself up.

"A hidden passageway, accordingly there are numerous of these passageways spread across the ruins," Iru began to say, walking forth in the pathway of blackness, "Let's go dear."

"Yes Professor."

* * *

The two men stood still, basked in the chilling silence that the ruins usually emitted. Memories of their times together and memories of the incident that drove them apart came forth, and the stood there with these memories in mind.

"M-Metaknight, Metaknight-sama, it has been a while." Vul nervously said the first of the two to speak.

"Yes, it has been a long time since you abandoned the Halberd to its destruction." Metaknight replied, his voice tinted with bitterness.

Vul chuckled nervously to himself, worrying constantly at what his former master might plan to do with him, "Well sir, with all Kirby had done there was no chance of the ship to remain airborne, what was I suppose to do?"

"You could have tried to stop him! You could have tried to repair the ship! You could have been willing to risk your life like all the other men aboard the ship but no, you fled the moment you thought we couldn't win!" The usually calm knight yelled back, his anger in a rare moment getting the better of him.

Vul retreated from these words, pushing his body back into his seat, and edging away from the knight within the safety of his cockpit.

"Sure I did. That is the smart thing to do. Going down with the ship is honourable and all but once you're dead you can't do much now can you."

Once again the silence resumed, Vul out of fear and Metaknight out of anger, they chose to remain silent.

Turning round, his back towards his former comrade, Metaknight began to walk away, "You are no longer a member of the Meta-Knights so don't get in my way."

Vul watched the blue cape swish in the air, staring at the back of a man he feared. A small but powerful man that he once thought would secure him his life of peace by conquering Dreamland. Without a word Vul operated one of the lobster arms of his vehicle, raised it in the direction of Metaknight, and pressed a button.

Always alert, Metaknight swiftly leaped over the stream of fire that shot out towards him. The moss was illuminating enough but with the fire a blazing the swordsman's mask shone, his stare directly piercing into the bird before him.

Once the fire had stopped Metaknight drew his sword, it too gleaming, and pronounced, "I was going to pass on punishing a traitor but if you so desire it I shall hence forth cut you to ribbons coward."

* * *

"Ya know, I don't see why you guys were all worried and all," Gooey said as he hopped over a stumbling stone/zombie being, "these guys are nothing to worry bout."

"Well, they looked terrifying." Dee said as he stared at the scene before him.

When the statues, or what they thought were statues, came to life, both Dee and Adeleine were scared. Mostly because they looked like zombies, but also at how suddenly they spawned, closing in on the area they were. Now though, as the two watched the powerless heroes nimbly avoiding every clumsy and awkward attempt to attack from the ruin dwelling creatures, they did not fear.

"Poyo!" Kirby exclaimed as he slid attacked one of the creatures, causing it to collapse to the floor.

"It's strange though," Adeleine mused as she watched the statue zombie struggle to get up, moaning with each ounce of effort, "it seems like there in pain."

"Cause they are, we are beating them up after all." Gooey bragged as he whipped the creatures back with his extending tongue.

It was at this point though, as the group of youthful explorers watched the weak monsters before them, that the events of the prior Iru and Ume focused scene occurred. It was at this moment that the ground shook ever so gently and the floor paled. The creatures received a silent order to stand to attention, and they stayed that way till the ground stopped paling. Thus the earthy colours returned to the floor, and the strange beings resumed their arched posture.

The four friends looked on curiously, the shake being unnoticed and the floor only brought to their attention when their attention was drawn to the enemies weird behaviour.

"That's odd, nothing happ-Gooey begun to say until the zombie like creatures shot forth at rapid speeds, "something happened!"

Though the sudden rush was as the description suggests, sudden, and such suddenness took our focused group by surprise, they were saved by luck. For it was lucky for them that so many of the now speedy statues were within the area that moving at once caused them to crash and bash into one another. The majority hence formed a large dog pile in the corridor, unable to stop their prey from running away as fast as they could.

"Even with only a few of them they are still scary." Dee yelled, having looked behind to see the few un-trapped foes rapidly gaining on them.

"Run, run, run!" Kirby chanted, not to inform his allies to run but rather he said it from habit, enjoying his chants when playing running games.

The group continued to run but their speeds were quite different, and so they ran moreso in a line up than a huddle. Waddle Dee led the way for once for if it counts for anything Waddle Dee's were rather good at running away. Kirby followed closely, and he would probably be in front if the seriousness of the situation sunk in. Then there was a good distance apart from Kirby to their next member, Adeleine, who was unused to the physical labours of running. Holding the rear, and almost about to be caught was Gooey, running at the slowest pace due to a lack of feet.

"Curse my feet-less-ness!" Gooey cried, a cry that echoed along the many passageways of the ruins.

Fortune however shone once again on the heroes, and in the strangest of ways. Kirby's foot sunk into the earth, or rather he stepped on a switch which sunk into the floor when pressed. Kirby tripped, but the sudden stop did not matter for behind him, and behind his companions rose a wall, a stone wall that rose up from the brick floor and sealed them away from the berserk 'things'.

As Kirby rubbed his head, Adeleine and Dee stood both shocked and amazed, their minds beginning to take in the information. A grey stone wall had risen from the ground, barricading the enemies, and as such they were safe. As they realised they were safe they gave out a sigh of relief.

Kirby however was shaking his head, his gentle eyes scanning the area, "Where's Gooey?"

The question sent a chill down the backs of the group as both the painter and servant noticed one absent party member.

Kirby hopped forward and begun to look around once again, calling out "Gooey."

Dee and Adeleine on the other hand looked only to the wall, slowly walking over to it. Dee, despite his lack of an ear, placed his head against the wall to hear his begrudged friend on the other side. He heard silence, and silence only.

"I-I can't hear him." Dee whispered faintly, a hand set to the wall.

Kirby was oblivious to the thoughts of his comrade but the human girl knew what Dee meant and lowered her head. Then she felt something wet and slimy stroke against her cheek and immediately pulled back from the wall, stumbling as she did.

"Wha-Adeleine." Dee said aloud to his stumbling friend but then turned his attention to the long red tongue hanging in the air.

Following said tongue the sailor noticed a small blue blob blocking the hidden wall from connecting to the ceiling. Crushed between the ceiling and the wall was an animate Gooey.

"C-could you help me out of here." Gooey slobbered his compressed body making it sound more slurred than usual.

"Gooey!" The two closer ones yelled, and said yell brought Kirby over who also greeted with joy.

With a slight spring in his step Kirby latched onto the tongue and pulled Gooey out from his predicament. A now rather flat Gooey thanked them.

"I thought you were a goner there." Dee commented, tapping the good dark matter on the head as if it were his shoulder.

"Ya wish." Gooey once again slurred before his body sprung back into its usual round shape.

"Well, we're glad you're okay." Adeleine said as she gave the 'for the moment thought to be dead' Gooey a slight hug (slight due Gooey being half her size).

Dee flinched, and his eyes shot arrows into the blue copier's back, a gaze of hate that said copier was all too aware of. The group, with their worries pushed aside continued to march on, slowly though due to their low reserves of energy from the chase. Slowly walking at the back were a pained Waddle Dee and a joyous dark matter, the latter of which decided to hop over to the former.

Gooey proceeded to whisper to Dee "Just thought you'd like to know, she tastes of strawberries."

The reaction was immediate, an intense blush and a gasp for air. Such a reaction was the entertainment Gooey desired and he chuckled on as Dee tripped to the floor, the other two clueless at what was so amusing.

* * *

Dee's eyes sparkled upon the sight of the rail cart, and more importantly the rail tracks. The group had only walked a small distance, unhindered by the possibility of enemy encounters, when they came to a new corridor. Dee upon entering immediately spotted the rail tracks and almost immediately found a rail cart near it, though not on it.

"This is great; it doesn't even have a spot of rust on it." Dee babbled excitedly as he heaved the fallen cart onto its wheels.

Kirby looked puzzled for a second but memories of riding all sorts of transport with Dee flooded back to him, and soon he too was excited.

"Dee's rides very fun." Kirby squealed.

"Really."

Soon the three men were preoccupied with the rail cart and though the one female of the group was also preoccupied it was for a different reason.

"Do any of you hear that?" Adeleine whispered aloud though her words went unnoticed.

The sound came from deeper in the corridor; though not too far as otherwise the painter wouldn't have heard it. It was a familiar sound to the painter, the distinctive noise of a brush stroking against an uneven and tough surface, like stones and rocks. Following only the sound she pushed her beret away from her ears and walked without knowing.

Walked on until she saw a light, more of the fluorescent moss that did not grow in this particular corridor but appeared to be up ahead. In fact the former was correct, the corridor was absent of moss, but it opened into two paths, one which continued as rail tracked but pitch black corridor, and another which opened into a shimmering move.

The painter entered the room where brush sounds could be heard. She entered the vast area where sounds of rolling wheels and high pitched glee could be heard. She entered the majestic room covered in graffiti.

"W-what?" Adeleine said allowed as she took in what she was seeing.

As a painter she had been eager to see the mystic ruins, whom none knew who made them, and all its isolated glory, untouched by outside forces. As she watched the orange spherical man skidding around the room on roller skates, waving his paint coated brush against the walls, it was far from untouched. Carvings and stone paintings were covered in a new artists work, namely the work of one cap wearing boss, who seemed oblivious to Adeleine's arrival.

"What are you doing?" Adeleine yelled out, and though she was usually calm and reserved, her voice now wavered with anger.

Startled by the yell, the speedy painter tried to stop himself but ended up tying his feet together and falling to the floor. With a groan and a heave though he was soon back on his feet.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who interrupted the creation of my artistic masterpieces." The roller-skating painter complained, turning round to see Adeleine.

"I did, what are you doing making a mess of this place."

Such a comment seemed to hurt the orange spherical man as he pulled back, a look of shock on his face. This shock soon became a frown, and anger replaced any sense of pained pride.

"M-M-Mess you say. I'm creating art little missy, and I've decided that the best place to immortalise the great works of Paint Roller, me, is here, in this dinky ruin." Paint Roller yelled out, waving his arms furiously.

"Y-You can't do that. This entire place is a work of art." Adeleine called back, though her voice was no longer a yell the anger within it had not faded.

"True, an inferior work of art. With my help I'm making this place into something appreciative to the eyes, this place should be glad I'm putting the time and effort into spicing it up."

"This-I mean just because you think this temple is of inferior quality doesn't give you the write to tarnish them with your graffiti." The young artist once again argued back, and the shock expression once again formed on Paint Roller.

"G-G-Graffiti," Paint Roller murmured while stumbling backwards, "How dare you insult my art!"

The small patches of moss that sprouted out from the corners may not have not have been necessary at that particular moment, for Paint Roller anger flourished into flames as bright and intense as a volcano's eruption. Witnessing the rage of the second world boss, Adeleine stepped back.

"Don't try anything funny," Adeleine said nervously, still retreating via small steps backwards, "my friends are with me, so if you move a step closer I'll call them."

Paint Roller stopped at this though his body still seethed with anger. He kept his stare of hatred on the girl before him, and his mind digested the info.

"_D-darn it, if memory serves me correct this brat is friends with Kirby,_" Paint Roller thought, remembering back to having past Kirby earlier "_That would be no fun; I want to have more fun here."_

Seeing the racing mind and obvious fear on Paint Rollers face the green dressed artist appeared more confident and continued to speak, "That's right, so leave already, or my friends will be here in a jiffy."

Coincidentally it was at that point that the sound of grinding rails could be heard, and the click-click-clikity of the metallic wheels just beginning to turn. Hollers of excitement accompanied the less pleasant noise, engulfing it in the most part with laughter. Adeleine could not help but smile as she saw several beads of sweat surfacing on the orange body of Paint Roller before her.

"That's right; my friends are none other than..." Adeleine started, holding her out to the doorway where her friends came into view, all huddled jollily on the speeding mine cart...which went past the doorway.

Neither Adeleine nor Paint Roller uttered a sound as the joyous chatter of Kirby, Dee and Gooey became more and more distant. Nor did they more, nor did their expressions change, not at least until the sound of heroes became nothing.

"Now, what did you say about my art again," Paint Roller said, and Adeleine gulped down her worries as she saw the previous hot headed anger return to the spherical foe before her, "let me paint you a lovely portrait...of you losing to me!"

* * *

Iru's black feathered wing glided over the pale brown surface, heaping layers of dust off as it gently caressed the stone wall. With the secret hallways were move carvings across the walls, though now the source of light was the small blazing torch Ume held in her hands as the area lacked the glowing vegetation found elsewhere.

"So professor...have you found anything?" Ume asked impatiently.

She wasn't usually one to bother the professor however, as she had been tasked in holding the light in the right angle for her senior to see the carvings she herself were unable to study the carvings. There was also the whole unidentified monsters roaming thing but that had gotten the wrong ticket for her train of thought.

The Croucar did not reply; lost in thought. His eyes looked, his brains recorded and his mind tried to tie the images and memory together. This process was slow but he was getting a rough estimate of what the symbols meant. This process of his abruptly stopped when his wing hovered to the floor in front of him and he realised there was more.

Picking himself up, the Croucar moved back and ushered his brown locked assistant to hold the torch so its warm light touched the floor.

"More carvings," Iru said aloud and this time he did not need to rack his mind for the translation, "Fresh ones. This is probably the translation to what we see on the walls."

This time Ume was able to see them, roughly carved words on the floor, all in the modern language of Popstar. Parts of them had clouded over, where the carving wasn't so deep, but most of it was clear, if a bit scruffy.

"So, does this mean someone has also been here recently?" Ume asked, now studying her professor's expression.

A smile cropped up on the old birds beak and he whispered, "Yes."

A smile passed between the two, albeit unknown. Ume was happy for knowing what Iru was thinking and happy he had come to such a conclusion, and Iru was happy in believing this translation to be the work of his dear friend.

"Ume dear, listen to this," The professor started as he traced his wing across each line, reading them out while filling in the gaps, "Our assurance of victory lay not where they see but by flirting-flitting, fitting through walls as a spectre do-does at night you will come to find what we hold dear."

"I sort of understand that professor. Right now we are in a hidden passageway, a place you can't see and through the walls." Ume said, proud at her quick interpretation.

"Very good my student," Iru said, raising Ume's smile even more, "but there's more, a single bit parted from the sentence."

Iru now pointed to a square with a single dot in the middle, and a line from that dot pointing to the bottom of the square, "This, probably, translates into," Iru begun to say, moving his purplish black limb down to a small translated carving, "this. Chamber of Preservation."

"Chamber of Preservation? What is that?" Ume asked, not noticing light being overshadowed by something large.

"Well I have a theory or two..." Iru continued to talk as the figure loomed, it's tongue touching the floor, and it's head shaking left to right, right to left.

* * *

Patches of moss had been torn away and patches had been burned away. The walls, the floor and ceiling beneath such vegetation remained unscathed, a word not to be aligned with the knight that heaved his body up. His sword was covered in an odd goo, one that illuminated like the moss he stood on. His cape, swung over one shoulder as if he had just stood up from rolling was singed at the ends. His feet, unsteady, though his eyes never shook, never straying from it's focused target.

Before the weakened Meta-Knight was a laughing albatross seated comfortably in his mechanical weapon "Nice try 'Metaknight-sama' but... it will be I who will be cutting you to ribbons."

* * *

**_I do apologise for the lateness of this chapter, though I don't know who I'm apologising too as I don't know if anyone's even reading this fanfic. Reviews tend to help confirm, even if they are lacking criticism or are full of it, that people are reading your fanfic. I'm also annoyed that as a result of a lack of reviews I do not know where I'm messing up and which areas I need to improve._**

**_I've heard a good method to attract readers is to read and review, something I have no difficulty doing. But with the Kirby section I'm dissuaded from doing so as nearly all the fanfics are either anime based or Metaknight centric. You may have also caught on that my perception of Metaknight is that he is a villain which seems to go against most writers views of him within both the Kirby and Super Smash Bros section._**

**_Surprisingly King Dedede is absent for this chapter though that was intentional. I managed to sneak in some hints to DeeXAdeleine (maybe even a bit of GooeyXAdeleine) and I've set things up for two of the planned fights. Next chapter will introduce a third fight as well as the identity of the strange shadow._**

**_I hope you'll forward to such events in July, the time I'll upload the next chapter of this fanfic. I also hope you all enjoyed Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure Chapter 8!_**


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